Shingo Institute - Home of the Shingo Prize

Daily Dose: History
In 1945, Shigeo Shingo had a revelation—the distinction between "process" and "operation."

At the time, most managers focused on the person doing the work (operations). Shingo realized that the real waste was often hidden in the journey of the product itself (process)—the waiting, moving, and storing.

This insight became the foundation for flow-based manufacturing. It teaches that true excellence comes from optimizing the flow of value, not just the speed of the worker.

Daily Dose: Upcoming
Join a Convergence of Excellence in Kraków! 🇵🇱

We're bringing the Shingo community together in Poland to share the "know-why" behind some of Europe’s most successful cultural transformations.

This is a unique opportunity to explore how the Shingo Guiding Principles are adapted to specific European contexts to create sustainable enterprise excellence. You'll learn from leaders who have successfully moved beyond tools to build lasting cultures of improvement.

Don't miss your chance to be part of this inspiring exchange of ideas and insights!

🔗 Register here:
https://web.cvent.com/event/5ef53a60-dd86-430b-8013-8ec845e7941d/summary

Daily Dose: Trivia
Which quality legend realized that "checking" was no longer enough to describe the depth of true continuous improvement?

Late in his life—and after much deliberation—Dr. W. Edwards Deming elected to transition the Check phase of the PDCA cycle to Study (PDSA).

His goal was to avoid the connotation of "inspection" and emphasize a more rigorous and thoughtful examination of the results and impacts of any process change introduced.

In the Shingo Model, this mindset is fundamental to the principle of Embrace Scientific Thinking. It reminds us that real excellence isn't just about verifying a task—it's about the deep learning that occurs when we truly study a system to confirm or generate new knowledge.

Daily Dose: Spotlight
Behind every great teacher is a mentor who paved the way. Today, we're spotlighting Kenichi Horikome, the man Dr. Shigeo Shingo credited as his primary teacher in the art of improvement.

As a leader at the Japan Management Association, Horikome provided Dr. Shingo with rigorous training in motion economy during a pivotal two-month production engineering seminar in 1937. Having learned from efficiency pioneers like Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Horikome was the historical bridge between early industrial engineering and the ideas that eventually formed the foundation of the Shingo Model.

Horikome was known for a relentless focus on progress, famously demanding that his students make at least one operational improvement every single day. This commitment to the "motion mind" became the backbone of Dr. Shingo's thinking—and it remains a cornerstone of how we approach Continuous Improvement today.

Daily Dose: Inspiration
True leadership isn't defined by what you tell people to do; it's defined by the behaviors you model. At the Shingo Institute, we say “Show Them Your Back”—a reminder that teams are always watching their leaders, even when those leaders think their back is turned.

When leaders align their actions with the Shingo Guiding Principles, those behaviors cascade throughout the entire organization. If you want a culture of respect, you must be the first to demonstrate it. If you want a culture of continuous improvement, you must be the first to admit vulnerability and seek a better way.

Excellence isn't a directive; it's a standard that's lived and witnessed. By consistently practicing ideal behaviors, you provide a blueprint that empowers others to reach their own untapped potential.

What kind of example are you showing your team today?

Daily Dose: Fun Fact
Excellence isn't just about the bottom line—it’s about the safety and well-being of every individual.

A Shingo Prize-recipient manufacturing plant in Guatemala, situated in the seismically active Ring of Fire, applied process improvement to its emergency protocols. By treating an evacuation like a critical value stream, the team managed to improve their response times by 71% over just two years.

This remarkable demonstration of the Shingo principle Focus on Process serves as a powerful reminder that when we improve our systems, we aren't just driving results—we're protecting our most valuable resource: our people.

Stop Firefighting and Start Leading!
Is your organization’s success dependent on a few "heroes" saving the day? True excellence shouldn’t be an exhausting exception—it should be the standard.

Join us on August 18 at 11am ET for a Shingo Webinar exploring how to transition your organization's culture from the "Danger Zone" of reactive fixes to a "Winning Zone" where systems empower every team member to drive improvement.

Learn the specific leadership actions that move beyond quick wins to create a sustainable, world-class culture.

Translation subtitles are available upon request during registration.

🔗 Save your spot here:https://web.cvent.com/hub/events/6fd1d629-0abb-434e-ba59-516fa5c26029/landing

Daily Dose: Humor
An Agile team walks into a bar and orders beers. The bartender says, "That will be thirty dollars, and it will take two weeks." The Scrum Master replies, "Great! We will take the first 10% of the beer today, and you can give us the rest during the next sprint."
While we love a good iterative process, this joke highlights a core Shingo truth: value is defined by the customer. Delivering 10% of a beer might meet a "sprint goal," but it doesn't quench the customer's thirst!
In the Shingo methodology, the aim is Flow and Pull—delivering exactly what is needed, when it is needed, without waste. If your "increments" aren't providing actual value, you might just be standardizing the wait.