find the BRILLIANCE in your WORKFORCE®
Empower Them To Think!
Upon retirement, an auto worker said to his supervisor,
“For 40 years you had my back. For that entire time, you could have had my mind.”
The NUMMI plant - an experimental collaboration between Toyota and GM - produced greater throughput and higher quality at a lower cost with fewer workers than the GM factory that formerly occupied the plant.
All of the NUMMI workers were hired from the same union pool that was laid off when GM closed the plant a few years earlier.
What was the difference?
Often, when enterprise leadership focuses on lean methodology and continuous improvement, they invest substantial time and money on change initiatives to drive positive results. They often learn the challenge associated with sustaining momentum. Tools and systems identified on benchmarking tours, are often thought to be “plug and play”, when in reality, it is not that simple. Results spike for awhile, eventually followed by a decline, or at least a plateau. This produces an attitude of “flavor of the month” in associates, and even management. Frustration and cynicism ensues.
The Shingo Model is not an additional lean program or change initiative to implement. Rather, it introduces the 10 Shingo Guiding Principles on which to anchor your current initiatives. It fills the gaps in your efforts towards ideal results and organizational excellence.
The Shingo Model is a different way of thinking.
Three Insights of Organizational Excellence
Insight #1: Ideal Results Require Ideal Behaviors
The results of an organization depend on the way its people behave. To achieve ideal results, leaders must do the hard work of creating a culture where ideal behaviors are expected and evident in every team member.
Insight #2: Purpose and Systems Drive Behavior
It has long been understood that our beliefs have a profound effect on our behavior. What is often overlooked, however, is the equally profound effect that systems have on behavior. What is often overlooked, though, is the equally profound effect that systems have on behavior. Most of the systems that guide the way people work are designed to create a specific business result without regard for the behavior that the system consequentially drives. Managers have an enormous job to realign management, improvement, and work systems to drive the ideal behavior required by all people to achieve ideal business results.
Insight #3: Principles Inform Ideal Behaviors
Principles are foundational rules that govern consequences. The more deeply one understands , the more clearly he or she understands ideal behavior. The more clearly one understands ideal behavior, the better he or she can design systems to drive that behavior to achieve ideal results.
For any organization to be successful in the long term, it must be engaged in a relentless quest to make things better. Failure to make continuous improvement a priority will inevitably result in organizational decline. Similarly, excellence must be the pursuit of everyone. In fact, the passionate pursuit of perfection, even knowing it is fundamentally impossible to achieve, brings out the best in every human being.
-The Shingo Institute
Guiding Principles
The Shingo Guiding Principles are ten principles that are the basis for building a sustainable culture of enterprise excellence. In the Guiding Principles diamond, the principles are divided into three dimensions: Cultural Enablers, Continuous Improvement and Enterprise Alignment.
Respect Every Individual
Lead With Humility
Seek Perfection
Embrace Scientific Thinking
Focus on Process
Assure Quality at the Source
Improve Flow and Pull
Think Systemically
Create Constancy of Purpose
Create Value for the Customer
“Principles always have natural consequences attached to them. There are positive consequences when we live in harmony with the principles. There are negative consequences when we ignore them.”
Dr. Steven R. Covey, author of the best-selling book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
we’re here to help!
If you’re just starting out on your organization’s journey of excellence, restarting it, jump starting it or well on your way, we can help.