Shingo Prize

By Al Norval,

We hear so much about the Shingo Prize, I thought I would investigate it and share some of my findings with you.

The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence is awarded annually by the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University, to companies around the globe that "achieve world-class operational excellence status." It was established in 1988 and is named in honor of Shigeo Shingo and is recognized as the premier award for operational excellence in North America.

The prize has three categories:

- Business

- Public Sector

- Research

In the Business category, prizes are awarded to companies that achieve world-class manufacturing status. Shingo Prize (Gold), Silver, and Bronze prizes exist.

In the Public Sector category, prizes are given to the public sectors that achieve world-class manufacturing status. Shingo Prize (Gold), Silver, and Bronze prizes exist.

In the Research category, prizes are awarded recognizing research and writing regarding new knowledge and understanding of Lean and operational excellence.

It is given in four categories:

- Unpublished papers

- Published articles

- Books & monographs

- Applied publications / multimedia programs.

Who was Shigeo? Shingo that the Shingo Prize was named after?

Shigeo Shingo (新郷 重夫, 1909 - 1990), born in Saga City, Japan, was an Industrial Engineer who distinguished himself as one of the world’s leading experts on manufacturing practices and the Toyota Production System. Although the myth prevails that he invented the Toyota Production System, in truth he was an external consultant who taught courses in Industrial Engineering at Toyota. He did document TPS and wrote one of the first books on TPS entitled “Study of the Toyota Production System”. He is recognized as being one of the world’s leading experts in improving manufacturing processes.

Shingo is best known for adding two prases to the Lean Glossary:

- SMED

o Single Minute Exchange of Dies

o Enabling small lot size production

- Poka Yoke

o Mistake-Poofing

o Building quality in at the source

The Shingo Prize was named after him in recogition of his lifelong accomplishments and devotion to assisting organizations achieve world-class status.

The Shingo Prizes are awarded at their annual conference with the next one being in Atlanta on May 7-10, 2012. Please join me in congratulating all the award winners with a special acknowledgement to Pascal Denis who will receive his 4th award in Research for his latest book “The Remedy”

See you in Atlanta

Cheers