Shingo's Kaizen For Manufacturing Reflections
There are many interesting insights on the structure of creative thinking about Kaizen (Improvement) in this book. But the bulk of the text is anecdotal reflections on problems the author has solved or encountered during many years of worrying about manufacturing problems. For me the key messages of the book are:

1. Be sure you define the problem carefully
2. Make sure you define the purpose of your solution activity carefully
3. Be sure you suspend judgement during brainstorming
4. Don't stress about not reaching a root cause right away

I didn't find most of the many anecdotes very valuable or interesting, except that the illustrate the tenacious focus of Shingo on Kaizen. I don't recommend this book except as a historical reference to the subject of Kaizen.

Essence of Lean Thinking
In this book, the reader is taken back behind the proverbial " curtain", to be shown the essence of the thought processes used by one of the profound geniuses of lean thinking in the 20th century.

This book will have the heaviest impact upon those who have a great difficulty grasping how to think unconventionally. It will only help those people, when they are truly ready to loosen their grasp upon their traditional paradigms.

What particularly impresses me when I read this book is that it is not overly complicated, and in fact, is in many ways very simple. It takes the reader to the threshold, to touch the ability to open up and allow oneself to be receptive to thinking differently.

By thinking differently, the mind ends up in a different place. This "place" is subtle, yet the implications are profound.

One thing that really did surprise me about Dr. Shingo's presentation was his creative assimilation of western thought. Almost all of his references in the development of his thought processes come from western thinkers - not the ancient Buddhist Japanese texts, that students of Zen and eastern thought might be inclined to think were the sources, but rather, a solid reliance upon the same people that many of us were exposed to in our education. The profound realization herein is that while Dr. Shingo read the same books, he got entirely different messages from the reading. That, in and of itself, gives me much pause for reflection.

This is not a book to be read once and then put down - the real value comes from beginning to "live with it", as a companion.

As a final thought, don't try too hard to understand what is being said - simply open up, allow the mind to relax, and let the mind be taken to new and different places - this might be scary to some, but can be accomplished if you allow yourself to trust ultimately in truth for the sake of truth.

Happy reading!

From J. Kaye's Book Blog
Kaizen is a Japanese word for small changes for continuous improvement. Kai means change and Zen means good. Anthony Robbins, the self-improvement guru, uses this, so does Toyota.

"Kaizen and The Art of Creative Thinking" by Shigeo Shingo is a book about change, and how to making it happen. This book is designed to shake up the status-quo. It is self-help for organizations, and has much information that can be used by individuals. While the examples are from manufacturing, these principles can be used, and are being used, in many different organizations. If you are a supervisor, shift leader, manager, or a worker looking to improve work, you need to read this. If you are a business consultant and haven't read this, shame on you!

Dr. Shigeo Shingo was a master of Kaizen and wrote a book in 1958 about creative thinking. This is his book. Shingo writes "based on my 30 years of hands-on experience of plant improvement, I developed a system called the "Scientific Thinking Mechanism." It embodies techniques and philosophies advocated by others, such as the aforementioned Experimental Scientific Thinking, Creative Thinking, and Brainstorming methods. Although each of these methods captured a certain aspect, none of them were comprehensive. Thus, I combined the strengths of these various methods and created this Scientific Thinking Mechanism." Some of these are Fredrick Taylor, Immanuel Kant, and W. E. Deming, well known to all college business students.

Dr. Shingo breaks down complex subjects in simple terms. He illustrates his points using humor and shop floor examples with lots of charts and illustrations to show what's discussed and to tie these concepts together. Each one of the six chapters, Principles of Analytical Thinking, Capturing Problems, Idea Generation for Improvement, Evolution of Improvement, From Ideas to Reality, and Promoting Improvement Ideas are stuffed full of real-life examples highlighting the chapter's points. You can actually see how The "Scientific Thinking Mechanism" came to be.

In Chapter Six, he describes the Engineer's Instinct and the Manager's Instinct. In the example, the change didn't completely solve the problem, just 60% successful. The engineer's instinct says it didn't do 100%, so it doesn't work. The manager's instinct says there a savings of 40% - so more profit! Also in this chapter he describes 10 common objections to change. I hate to admit it, but I've used some myself. It is worthwhile to note that between 50 years and two cultures, Japanese and American, there are the same obstacles to change.

Reviewed by Steve at J. Kaye's Book Blog

...the opening to creative thinking
I have just received the book the other day and I am impressed with what impressive clarity Shigeo Shingo shows what Kaizen is really about:

-- Finding new ways of improvement through thinking out of the box.

Half way through the book I can say it is the most challenging and condensed piece of literature I have read on Lean until the present day.

Shigeo Shingo shows through his given examples (from various industries and backgrounds) where people's mental models (meaning assumptions, behaviours, beliefs, etc.) seem be stuck to old thinking until there comes a shift of thinking. The short episodes have a great impact on the reader's own thinking and connecting to his/her past experiences.

So my opinion is that the book -even though (or because?) the initial work of Shingo came out in 1959- is well suited to present questions around work improvement.

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