Norman Bodek, president, PCS Press Inc.
Over the past 20 years, Norm Bodek has worked tirelessly to bring the best of Japanese management theory to America. He is credited with discovering and publishing the works of Dr. Shigeo Shingo and Taiichi Ohno, the inventors of the Toyota Production System.
His knowledge has been gleaned from taking more than 70 trips to Japan and visiting 250 plants. Believing that you must see the process in action, Bodek has conducted 50 study missions for inquisitive executives.
He has published 100 Japanese management books on subjects including kaizen blitz, SMED, TPM, QFD, hoshin kanri, poka-yoke and visual factory, which have been indispensible tools in the continuous-improvement movement.
In 1988, he co-founded the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence with professor Vern Buehler at Utah State University.
At 78, Bodek is president of the Vancouver, Wash.-based publishing, consulting and training firm PCS Press Inc., where he is working to broaden the implementation of lean from the production floor to the entire enterprise.
"I see the evolution of lean from the factory floor to human development. My goal is to find the best ways to grow employees in a way that will make us more competitive," explains Bodek.
"Every person at work should be empowered and involved in the improvement process through their own creative ideas to make their work easier, more interesting, build their skills and capabilities, while at the same time improving communications throughout the organization, improving customer service, improving quality, improving safety, improving productivity and bringing new excitement and joy into the workplace."
Bodek believes that lean again will come to the rescue of manufacturing in terms of providing a path to innovation. Developing the human side of lean will empower people to take the time to look both within and outside their organizations in an effort to create solutions that translate to new products and markets, he believes.
