Innovation Archives - Page 2 of 7

Automation with a Human Touch

In the Toyota Production System, jidōka is written 自働化, not 自動化, the usual word for automation. Toyota calls it ninben no tsuita jidōka, automation with the person radical added to the character. It means automation with human wisdom added.

Toyota traces the idea to the automatic loom invented by Toyoda Sakichi. The loom did more than mechanize work once done by hand. It had a built-in device that let the machine judge good from bad. An article in the engineering news site MONOist sets the two side by side: stopping when a thread breaks, and stopping when anything is abnormal.

Medical Accident Investigations

Since October 2015, Japanese hospitals have investigated medical accidents under the iryō jiko chōsa seido, the medical accident investigation system. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare says the system aims to prevent recurrence and secure the safety of medical care. A national support center collects and analyzes the hospitals’ investigations.

Fukushima Prefecture’s guide to the system adds that it is “not intended to pursue the responsibility of individuals.”

Award for Creativity and Ingenuity

Since 1960, Japan’s Ministry of Education has presented the sōi kufū kōrōsha shō, the award for contributors to creativity and ingenuity. It honors people in companies and other organizations who have actually made creative improvements in their own workplaces. The examples it gives are a dramatic rise in work efficiency, better product quality and large cost reductions. Individuals and groups can receive it. In fiscal 2025, the ministry honored 450 people.

The Incident Is Not in the Conference Room

The film Odoru daisōsasen the Movie (Bayside Shakedown) opened in Japan on October 31, 1998. It earned 10.1 billion yen. In it, the hero, a police detective, shouts: Jiken wa kaigishitsu de okiteru n ja nai! Genba de okiteru n da! “The incident is not happening in the conference room. It is happening at the scene!”

The Wisdom of All

Panasonic quotes its founder, Matsushita Kōnosuke: Shūchi o atsumeta zen’in keiei, kore wa watakushi ga keieisha to shite shūshi ikkan kokorogake, jikkō shite kita koto de aru. “Management by everyone, gathering the wisdom of all, is what I kept in mind and put into practice as a manager from beginning to end.”

He also said that the more the wisdom of all employees is used in management, the more a company develops. At a policy meeting in 1957, he said: “Matsushita Electric is managed by the wisdom of all.”

Monozukuri Nippon Grand Award

Since 2005, the Japanese government has presented the Monozukuri Nippon taishō, the Monozukuri Nippon Grand Award, every two years. Monozukuri means the making of things. The award honors seizō seisan genba no chūkaku o ninatte iru chūken jinzai, mid-career people who form the core of the manufacturing and production floor. It also honors the skilled people who have upheld traditional and cultural skills.

Frontline Strength

Genbaryoku (現場力): the strength of the front line. A Japanese business training site defines it as the power to solve problems on site.

The 2018 white paper on manufacturing of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry adds that genbaryoku is not limited to the production floor. Every place where people carry out an activity can be a genba. The white paper says that this strength is thought to be akin to kaizen and suriawase.

Pendulum Batting

In 1994, Ōgi Akira replaced Doi Shōzō as manager of the Orix baseball team. Ōgi saw a young player of the farm team, Suzuki Ichirō, moved him up to the first team at once and had him bat second. That year, the player changed his registered name to Ichirō. With his own style, the furiko dahō, pendulum batting, he finished with 210 hits, the first season of 200 hits in the history of Japanese professional baseball.

Under Doi, according to one account found in a single source, the young player had been told: “If you do not change that way of batting, I will not use you on the first team.”

To Learn and to Imitate

Manabu (学ぶ): to learn. The Digital Daijisen dictionary notes that it has the same origin as manebu (まねぶ), to imitate. The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten adds that which of the two came first is not known.

Momo kuri sannen kaki hachinen (桃栗三年柿八年): peaches and chestnuts take three years, persimmons eight. Everything takes its due time before it bears fruit.

Sōgetsu

Teshigahara Sōfu learned ikebana, the art of flower arranging, from his father, an ikebana master. In 1927, he founded his own school, Sōgetsu. The Digital Daijisen dictionary says that he started a boom of avant-garde ikebana.