At S A Partners we have developed a simple 7 step approach to help you create your own Shingo journey.
Shingo Consulting – The Shingo Prize and our Shingo Heritage
The Shingo approach is a way of creating sustainable and excellent results. This involves overcoming two major huddles:
- Moving beyond the ‘implement the tools stage’ to look at complete systems
- Bridging the functional& cultural change gap by connecting the traditional technical approaches to improvement with the leadership and change management required
The Shingo prize is named in honour of Dr. Shigeo Shingo, who was instrumental in developing the world-famous Toyota Production System. Dubbed the “Nobel Prize of Manufacturing” by BusinessWeek, the Shingo Prize was established in 1988 at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University as a way to recognise great organisations worldwide, and to set a world standard for Enterprise Excellence. The Shingo prize measures an organisation’s successful establishment of a culture anchored on principles of operational excellence based on the understanding that Enterprise Excellence is much more than the application of lean tools. The Shingo Model™ is not just another initiative; it is a new way of thinking.
In 2013 the Shingo Institute formed a collaborative partnership with S A Partners to bring this knowledge to a wider global audience. Since then, S A Partners has been helping to update and improve Shingo related courses and the consulting support activities offered to organisations.
The Shingo Model
The Shingo Model is based around 10 Guiding Principles which align the systems within an organisation and the specific tools required to produce results.
- Respect every individual
- Lead with humility
- Seek perfection
- Assure quality at source
- Flow and pull value
- Embrace scientific thinking
- Focus on process
- Think systemically
- Create constancy of purpose
- Create value for the customers
The Shingo approach is a way of creating sustainable and excellent results. This involves overcoming two major hurdles:
- Moving beyond the ‘implement the tools stage’ to look at complete systems
- Bridging the functional & cultural change gap by connecting the traditional technical approaches to improvement with the leadership and change management required
Download The Shingo Model Handbook, and find out more about how we can help you on your Shingo journey (link to “How can we help you” page)
To find how we can help, or if you would like a Shingo Assessment carried out, please contact:
The real benefit of applying the Shingo approach is the creation of a Culture of Improvement where excellence is achieved through people across the whole organisation and in the whole spectrum of business results.
It is not what you see; it is in what you feel, hear and the positive emotions that you experience in being in such an organisation. It is the way people are respected, led and inspired.
It is not the winning of a Prize, but the journey that is key.
At S A Partners we have worked with several Shingo prize winning sites.
Vale were the first UK Company to be awarded the Shingo Silver Medallion in 25 years with just one other European company being previously recognised at that level. Simon Grogan, S A Partners MD for Europe who’s worked closely with the company, said that “it’s a fantastic reward for the hard work Vale and S A Partners have been putting in together over the last few years”.
Being an affiliate of the Shingo Institute, S A Partners are pleased to announce that a team within the Direct Channels Division at the Common Wealth Bank of Australia (CBA) have become the first ever financial team to reach Shingo Silver Medallion status from the Shingo Institute.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (the Group) is one of Australia’s leading organizations, providing integrated financial services, including retail, premium, business and institutional banking, funds management, superannuation, insurance, investment and share-broking.
Not every organisation we work with decides they want to make a Shingo challenge. This is not the point of the Shingo approach. However, for many it is a good recognition of your people’s collective effort and can be highly motivational.
If you do wish to make a challenge, we can draw on our experience of almost 20 challenges to help you. We can help you:
- Understand the challenge process
- Prepare an achievement report
- Respond to clarification questions from the Shingo Examiner team
- Prepare for an on-site assessment and the examiners review
Our team are all licensed Shingo trainers with a detailed understanding of the Shingo model. Fiona Buttrey, John Quirke, Colin Scott, and Richard Young, are Shingo examiners who have worked with the Shingo Institute to assess sites challenging for Shingo recognition. This has given them a deep understanding of the assessment process, and they can advise potential challengers on what to expect during an examination.
Fiona Buttrey was the CI lead at Vale’s Clydach Nickel Refinery throughout their Shingo journey, culminating in a Shingo Silver Medallion. This has given her practical experience of how to write a Shingo achievement report, and how to prepare for and execute a site visit.
Below is our list of publications that have been awarded a Shingo prize for excellence.
The Essence of Excellence, Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement
Over the last 5 years Peter Hines and Chris Butterworth have conducted research in over 100 companies worldwide. Of these, around 40 have shown themselves to have, in their different ways, the Essence of Excellence they were looking for. This has culminated in the book, The Essence of Excellence, which was launched in January.
4 + 1: Embedding a Culture of Continuous Improvement in Financial Services
The authors combine their seventy years of collective experience in Lean and business improvement to present 5 basic habits to the reader that are easy to learn yet take years to master.
A culture of continuous improvement in your organisation will start to develop almost as soon as the habits are applied and continue to mature as they are mastered.
Staying Lean, Thriving not just Surviving
Staying Lean: Thriving, not just surviving, is a Shingo Prize winning publication for Operational Excellence, in the Research and Professional Publication category. The book draws on the story of a multi-national company that has successfully implemented Lean in its manufacturing and commercial areas to help turnaround the organisation s financial performance.
Creating a Lean & Green Business System
Creating a Lean and Green Business System: Techniques for Improving Profits and Sustainability. Another Shingo Prize winning book which offers opportunities for innovation that can simultaneously reduce dependence on natural resources and enhance global prosperity. It explores less understood aspects of lean and green – discussing their evolution independently as well as the opportunities that exist in their integration, highlighting the importance of a cultural shift across the whole company.
The Routledge Companion to Lean Management
The Routledge Companion to Lean Management, is a 2017 Shingo Prize winning publication for Operational Excellence, in the Research Award Category. Contained within it are two chapters co-authored by S A Partner’s Professor Peter Hines and Dr Keivan Zokaei, respectively on ‘Lean Armed Forces’ and ‘Lean and Green’.
S A Partners clients who have been awarded a Shingo Prize for Excellence
Long standing client, Vale, recieve Shingo Award
Vale were the first UK Company to be awarded the prize in 25 years with just one other European company being previously recognised. Simon Grogan, S A Partners MD for Europe who’s worked closely with the company, said that “it’s a fantastic reward for the hard work Vale and S A Partners have been putting in together over the last few years”.
First Shingo Prize awarded to a financial team
Being an affiliate of the Shingo Institute, S A Partners are pleased to announce that a team within the Direct Channels Division at the Common Wealth Bank of Australia (CBA) have become the first ever financial team to reach Shingo Silver Medallion status from the Shingo Institute.
Meet the S A Partners Shingo assessor and facilitator team:
Colin Scott (based in USA)
Richard Young (based in Australia)
John Quirke (based in Ireland)
Fiona Buttrey (based in United Kingdom)