shigeo-shingo's analytical study of TPS from the perspective of an industrial engineer. Originally published in Japanese in 1981 as 『トヨタ生産方式のIE的考察』by the Japan Management Association. English translation by Andrew P. Dillon, Productivity Press, 1989. The Japanese title was republished in a 2023 facsimile edition by 日刊工業新聞社 (Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun).
Overview
More systematic and detailed than taiichi-ohno's own account, Shingo's book provides engineering-level descriptions of TPS techniques — how kanban works mechanically, how smed is implemented step by step, how poka-yoke devices are designed. English subtitle: "From an Industrial Engineering Viewpoint."
Key Arguments
The book's most important conceptual contribution is the distinction between "process" (the transformation of material) and "operation" (the work done by people and machines). Shingo argues this distinction is fundamental to understanding flow — most improvement efforts focus on operations (making individual steps faster) when the real gains come from improving the process (eliminating waiting, transport, and storage between steps).
Shingo presents TPS as an engineering system amenable to systematic analysis, while acknowledging Ohno's management vision. Norman Bodek described this as "the green book that started it all — the first book in English on JIT, written from the engineer's viewpoint." When Omark Industries bought 500 copies and studied it companywide, Omark became the American pioneer in JIT manufacturing.
Significance
The Ohno-Shingo relationship is visible in the text: where Ohno's writing is terse and philosophical, Shingo's is detailed and systematic. Together, their books provide complementary views of the same system — one from the executive who created it, the other from the engineer who analyzed it.