Shigeo Shingo

Biographical Summary

Shigeo Shingo (新郷重夫, January 8, 1909 — November 14, 1990) was a Japanese industrial engineer who taught productivity improvement courses at Toyota for roughly 30 years and authored influential books on manufacturing methodology. His books on SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Die) and poka-yoke (error-proofing) have been widely translated and remain frequently cited in manufacturing literature worldwide.

Early Career and Education

Shingo was born in Saga City on the island of Kyushu. He graduated from Yamanashi Higher Technical School (now the University of Yamanashi) in 1930, studying mechanical engineering. He joined the Taipei Railway Factory in Taiwan, where he first encountered production management challenges and became interested in scientific management and industrial engineering.

After the war, Shingo became associated with the Japan Management Association (JMA), where he taught industrial engineering, plant improvement, and production management courses. Through JMA and later independently, he worked with a wide range of Japanese companies.

Work at Toyota: The P Courses

Beginning in the latter part of 1955 at the Koromo plant, Toyota hired Shingo to teach a series of productivity improvement courses known as the P courses (P for Production). These were industrial engineering training courses for young manufacturing engineers and shop floor foremen.

There were four P courses, each focused on a different IE discipline:

1. Motion Analysis Course (5 days) — How to observe and think about kaizen, motion analysis methods, shop floor observation practice, idea generation for improvement, creation and implementation of kaizen plans.

2. Time Analysis Course (5 days) — Time study fundamentals, shop floor observation and measurement practice, analysis of additional study items, development of kaizen plans based on time study findings.

3. Operation Analysis Course (3 days) — Categories of IE analysis, operation analysis methods, shop floor observation practice, work sampling techniques.

4. Process Analysis Course (5 days) — Plant-level kaizen thinking, process analysis and investigation, shop floor observation of process flow, desktop practice exercises.

A longer combined P course that brought all four disciplines together was taught every few years, reserved for veteran engineers.

During the most intensive period (1956-1958), Shingo taught at Toyota nearly every month. After 1958, the frequency settled to approximately four courses per year, tapering in later years to once or twice annually as internal Toyota trainers developed their own capability. Over the roughly 30-year relationship, Shingo taught approximately 80 courses to an estimated 3,000 trainees, with classes limited to about 30 participants each.

The courses were primarily classroom-based, with each course including shop floor visits for observation and practice exercises. The P courses replaced an earlier TWI Job Methods course at Toyota, offering more detailed and varied coverage of IE analysis techniques. Shingo also taught the P courses at Matsushita Electric (Panasonic) and many other Japanese manufacturers.

Influence on Toyota’s Kaizen Training

The P courses had a lasting influence on how Toyota trained engineers to observe work and think about improvement. The IE fundamentals Shingo taught — how to study motion, measure time, analyze operations, and map processes — became part of the foundation for Toyota’s internal kaizen training programs. Around 1974, a section on TPS and the importance of kaizen was added to the front of the P courses, further integrating Shingo’s IE training with Toyota’s broader improvement philosophy.

Books

Shingo was a prolific author. His books documented industrial engineering methods and manufacturing improvement techniques and were widely translated into English and other languages. Major works include:

• A Study of the Toyota Production System from an Industrial Engineering Viewpoint (1981) — Shingo’s analysis of TPS through an IE lens
• A Revolution in Manufacturing: The SMED System (1985) — The definitive published work on changeover reduction methodology, introducing the internal/external setup distinction and systematic approach to single-digit minute changeovers
• Zero Quality Control: Source Inspection and the Poka-Yoke System (1986) — A systematic approach to preventing defects at the source through error-proofing devices and source inspection
• Multiple earlier works published in Japanese by Nikkan Kogyo Publishing between 1958 and 1980, covering the P course subject matter in detail

His English-language books, translated and published by Productivity Press, introduced many Western readers to Japanese manufacturing concepts for the first time.

Recognition

The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence, established in 1988 at Utah State University, was named in his honor. The prize recognizes organizations that demonstrate world-class operational performance.

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