Would love to speak with you via phone regarding your experience. I’m considering something like this for 2008 either with Jon’s Gemba or with Shingijutsu. You have my email, please let me know when you can speak.

Pete Abilla

The ones who are very good are the ones who understand the daily management and problem solving processes are actually the system. There are very few of these, and even fewer really make it their business to teach it.

Why? Because, from a consultant’s viewpoint, actually changing management thinking and behavior is incredibly difficult compared to teaching people the technical, physical aspects of the system.

So the first thing you have to evaluate is your alternative – the “existing U.S. consultant.”

As for Shingijutsu – a lot depends on the individual consultant, and even more depends on the attitude and approach of the client. Shingijutsu’s strength is in pushing the team to go beyond their self-imposed barriers and try things they might not have otherwise tried. *IF* the organization takes this as a learning experience, rather than treating each Shingijutsu activity as separate, then the learning can advance very quickly.

The other aspect to success with Shingijutsu is preparation. The post above talks about preparation to go to one of their seminars, but preparation to host them is probably even more important.

Sadly, most organizations do the opposite. They schedule Shingijutsu into their site, but apply little or no thought to what they are trying to get done. The Shingijutsu consultant ends up telling the team things that the organization already knows, but has simply chosen not to do yet.

Shingijutsu consultants, as a rule, will assess your situation (very quickly), and instruct on the next step. It does not matter what you know, only what they can see you have done. If you haven’t done it, they will tell you to do it. So if you haven’t done a good job organizing the work place, guess what? You are going to spend the first couple of days doing 5S. If you haven’t made any attempt to get basic flow into place, you are going to do that.

Here is the bottom line: All consultants have strengths and weaknesses. But *NONE* of them can do the work for you. Eventually any organization will either reach the point where they have out-grown their current consultant *or* they will reach a plateau and the consultant will keep coming and doing the same thing over and over.

Sorry this wasn’t a clear answer, but I would really need to see and assess your organization myself (genchi genbutsu!) to give a straight recommendation.

When I refer to a Shingijutsu Seminar I am talking about their public kaizen events held at one of their clients in Japan. The purpose of these events is primarily teaching the people who pay to participate about the basics.

It is one of the ways they teach kaizen to a large audience.

In that respect, a Shingijutsu Kaizen Seminar is a sub-set, a specialized application of the more general art of kaizen.

Although the thinking is consistent (if it is done well), kaizen takes many forms. Sometimes it is quick, solving a small problem and saving a few seconds.

Any other readers – feel free to chime in here!