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Title: Kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking - The Scientific Thinking Mechanism
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Manufacturer: PCS Inc. and Enna Products Corporation
List Price: $59.40
Our Price: $46.57
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| Kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking - The Scientific Thinking Mechanism by PCS Inc. and Enna Products Corporation 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 | | Kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking - The Scientific Thinking Mechanism by PCS Inc. and Enna Products Corporation ...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. | | Kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking - The Scientific Thinking Mechanism by PCS Inc. and Enna Products Corporation Worth every penny is an understatement | Having practiced Lean for over seven years, my biggest complaint has been the difficulty of finding books written simple and direct. Dr. Shingo's book is easy to read, simple, full of real-world examples not theory, and yet provides deep insight into a difficult area that all western manufacturers struggle with - continuous improvement at all levels.
People with different reading styles will appreciate his graphical representations. Although, at times I found them less useful (personal reading style).
Read this book once for the simplicity, then read it again to see the insights behind the simplicity. Then share it with everyone in your organization if you truly want to become a world-class manufacturer. |
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