Comments on: The Complete Meaning of Shitsuke

By: stan

stan — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:45:56 +0000

Dear RON,

Shame you don’t know your history about the origions of the MERITS OF MASS PRODUCTION.

It wasn’t Japan, or Germany or any other country that origionated and began the whole process change of producing many in high quality at the lowest cost as the customer wanted.

It was the united States, specifically our giants of industry who devised and created this most modern method of helping all mankind to better themselves through better ways to work.

“if it weren’t for these Japanese words – or ideas – we may still be waxing poetic about the merits of mass production.” YOUR WORDS

How wrong you truly are, or maybe its just your Quality of ideas lacks the modern approach…we call that continuous improvement in LEARNING

you should read some of the fine comments and thoughts by henry FORD and Firestone a to how a successful business and manufacturer should operate to gain market share and get the customer what they want.

By: Bruce Baker

Bruce Baker — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:14:24 +0000

I am genrally with you on the japanese words. You won’t hear me say we have to say policy deployment instead of hoshin kanri.” I say both.
However, I would suggest that that the people who read Deming, Henry Ford, and the US War Department’s TWI manuals obviously lacked ‘humility’ when they translated all this into Japanese. Your logic not mine. I don’t think it is a lack of humility to try to translate words in to the local language. It may lead to a lack of understanding in many cases. I don’t find it particularly arrogant to try to put something in terms that might be understood by the masses. I don’t think Ohno, or Shingo, or Kiichiro Toyoda were being arrogant when they took the good ideas of americans and translated them for their people.

By: alex KUBI

alex KUBI — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:52:40 +0000

I liked so much when my sensei Horaghushi, would call me Kubi son to come and collect my certificate…and I so relate to those word till today, I prefer the Japanese wording, the people who feel that the names make them feel itchy, go to there gemba, and you will notice the difference…

Stick to the word like ‘forget me not’…

By: Cesar Yamuta

Cesar Yamuta — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:13:19 +0000

Thank you very much, Sir, for your very enlightening sharing on Shitsuke. I really appreciate much your sharing this. I, too, am convinced on the productive merits of retaining the original Japanese words. In my sharing of 5S in our plant I normally make it a point that these Japanese words be somehow understood as to their real context. Seems like the substitutes or other language “interpretations” may not really suffice if really one intends to achieve a real understanding of these words. Also, retaining the Japanese words gives one a chance to initiate in his own a further discovery of the real meaning of the word. Thanks again, Sir.

By: Kim Niles

Kim Niles — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:34:41 +0000

Well done!! … but here’s a twist on your twist. I worked for a Japanese company for almost five years before realizing that their values can be very differnt than ours. So what I’m trying to say is that there are very large and complex differences between our two cultures (US and Japan) such that I still can’t say I understand the multiple meanings of Shitsuke … [smile].

By: Leroy

Leroy — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:39:04 +0000

I’m the lean 6 sigma programme manager for a global company.

One advantage to using the Japanese terms is the uniformity across different languages. We now have Polish operators who do not understand English, but do understand Muda.

It’s not a definative argument for adopting Japanese Terms, but it is a useful tool.

By: Ron Pereira

Ron Pereira — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:22:24 +0000

Thanks for the excellent comments everyone… especially you Darrin! I love a nice rant… keep the passion bro. It’s good stuff and I sincerely mean that.

By: Harish

Harish — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:38:05 +0000

Thank you for the wonderful post. I have actually started to learn Japanese after getting into TPS.

-Harish

By: Andy Wagner

Andy Wagner — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:56:11 +0000

Great topic Ron.
My personal feeling is that your language has to fit the culture of the place you’re working.
I wouldn’t go into GM or Ford these days with a bunch of Japanese words because they probably wouldn’t be well received.
Some sources say that 5S is derived from Ford’s “CAN-Do”:
Clearing up, Arranging, Neatness, Discipline, Ongoing improvement
Why would I use 5 hard to remember Japanese words, or contrived English substitutes when there’s a US origin phrase that conveys the message?

Why use “genchi genbutsu” when American culture has a robust notion of “seeing for yourself”, “getting your hands dirty” or in Missouri, “show me”?

Naturally, there are American business that are more modern, more multi-culture, more high-tech, more open, where the Japanese words would fit in fine.

The language should fit the culture.
The Japanese don’t a monopoly on lean thinking and got many of their ideas from other places. It’s appropriate to express the ideas in the “native tongue” of your business, whatever that might be.

-Andy

By: Darrin Thompson

Darrin Thompson — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:11:51 +0000

If they haven’t learned, you haven’t taught. The value is when students of this stuff adopt new behaviors. So to get them to adopt counterintuitive new behaviors you propose distracting them from the new behaviors with:

1. Words that begin with profanities that represent poop.
2. Words that are Japanese.

Frankly, you lost me at poop.

Plus in a year you are coming back and telling me you have found a new insight in the mystery word. So the fifth S has two meanings.

You couldn’t just have had 6 S’s to begin with? What am I paying you for?

A teacher who distracts her students from learning with this much self-indulgent waste has no business admonishing them about humility.

/rant