Shingijutsu nominates Hengstler encoder production cell as benchmark in Germany
At the end of January 2004, Chihiro Nakao, President von Shingijutsu*, a leading Japanese industrial consultant, visited the Hengstler GmbH at Aldingen / Germany, to participate at different Kaizen events for process optimization in the production of encoders and safety relays. Mr. Nakao has been the right arm of Taiichi Ohno for many years. Mr. Ohno is the inventor of the world famous Toyota Production System, which forms the basis of the DBS (Danaher Business System). In addition, Mr. Nakao was the inventor of the Kanban concept, which is also an essential part of the Toyota Production System and of DBS.
According to Mr. Nakao, the Hengstler way of preparing for the event has become a benchmark for the Danaher Corporation, and the Aldingen production cell for Acuro encoders is a benchmark for Danaher and even for Germany. He said that only Toyota in Japan could show a higher process level, and during his good-bye speech Mr. Nakao declared that Hengstler had the potential to even catch up with Toyota.
So this is a big success for Hengstler and its associates, for whom the principle of continuous improvement has clearly become part of their daily life, since one of the binding values for all Danaher companies is "Kaizen is our life-style".
In 1995 the Hengstler GmbH at Aldingen / Germany was taken over by the extremely successful US Danaher Corporation located at Washington, DC. Danaher attains annual sales of well over 5 billion $ with its strategic business platforms Electronic Testing & Measurement, Motion Control, Environmental, Hand Tools, Product Identification, Medical Technology. Danaher's success is based on the consistent and systematic use of the Danaher Business System DBS. The vision of DBS is the continuous improvement of all production processes, until the resulting process is established as one piece flow, with the lowest amount of waste, standardized work processes and delivering worldclass products and service. DBS is however not only applied to production departments but also to all areas of a company. The "voice of the customer" is always the starting point - we listen intensively to the customer, with respective effects on quality, delivery, cost and growth. Goal is the resulting customer satisfaction, which again is the basis for profitable growth. A precondition is always the full and total involvement of all associates.
High demands and goals therefore for Hengstler and Danaher and directly visible results.
* Since over 15 years Shingijutsu counsels and coaches global enterprises on process technology, with a focus on KAIZEN, and carries out respective in-house trainsings. Customers are for example Boeing, Porsche, Pratt & Whitney, AEG und Danaher Corporation.
Weiterführende Links:
www.hengstler.de
/icg-group/
www.danaher.com
http://www.shingijutsu.co.jp
www.toyotaproductionsystem.net/
