Ritsuo Shingo

Let me start with Ritsuo Shingo, Dr. Shingo's son was president of Toyota China and Hino Motors China. Ritsuo recently keynoted the Shingo Prize conference in Nashville. He initially wanted to get up in front of the audience and read his speech, but I spent two days with him, reviewing his talk and convincing him to just get up and tell his best stories.

"See my back!" When Ritsuo set up Toyota China, he needed an automobile and furniture for his office. He went out and bought a used Toyota. Imagine the president of the company buying a used car. He went to buy furniture and thought the prices for the desks and chairs were much to high so he looked around for used furniture and paid around one tenth of the new prices. Now, he said, "I didn't tell my subordinates to go and buy used things, I just felt that they would 'See my back,.' They all did the same as I did."

When I invited Ritsuo to key the conference, I told him that the Shingo Prize committee would be happy to pay business class airfare. But when he called his travel agent, and was told the cost of business class tickets, he couldn't spend that large amount of money. His body was uncomfortable on such a long flight from Tokyo but his mind was peaceful with the thought of how much he was saving the prize. He was taught well by his father.

He would spend 50% of his time on the factory floor training his workers. He would educate everybody and didn't hide anything, knowing that some people would leave would not restrain him for sharing everything he knew. When people did leave, he hoped that the relationship he had with them would continue.

He felt that top management should have a heart. And his commitment was most important. He would frequently have "heart to heart talks" with his employees. He said, "Always think about the other person and never look down at people." He felt that it was important for HR people, finance people and other support people to go often to the factory floor and talk and learn from the workers.

On the floor he would focus on reducing lead time; like a restaurant - order it then make it. Like pizza, bake and put on the topping.

There was a lot to overcome in China: people would spit on the floor, and punishment was used to educate, people were fined for making mistakes; wrong part they were fined; didn't meet target they were fined; people didn't feel pleasant, always being watched. It was a management problem not the workers. - Ritsuo changed all that to really trust and respect people.

People started with very low salaries but as Toyota did well so did the employees. He gave a lot of on-the-job training and always watched the results of his training. Every day he went around the factory, once a day to each department. He didn't like sitting in his office. He would write on a board so everyone knew where he was. Even as president he felt that education and training was his responsibility.

Ritsuo gave an excellent talk at the conference, people wanted him to stay beyond his hour. He promised to come back next year and they promised to give him two hours.