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| Dr. SHIGEYASU SAKAMOTO |
Brief Profile of the author: Dr. Shigeyasu Sakamoto is a Management Consultant in Productivity improvement and President of ProductivityPartner Incorporation. Before his current appointment, Sakamotowas Vice President of Maynard MEC AB (Sweden) and VicePresident of JMAC (Japan). Sakamoto is a Fellow at the WorldAcademy of Productivity Science. He received his Doctorate degree ofPolicy science from the Graduate School of Doshisha University inJapan and is certified as a Professional Engineer (P.E.) by theJapanese Government. He is also certified as an industrial engineerfrom the European Institute of Industrial Engineering, MTMinstructor from International MTM Directorate (IMD) (1985), anda MOST instructor from Maynard Management Institute. He workedfor the IMD as the Technical coordinator, responsible for developinga new system of MTM. Sakamoto is a senior member of the Instituteof Industrial Engineers. He’s a Work factor and Mento factorinstructor for WOFAC Corporation. Sakamoto has publishedmany books and papers in English and Japanese regardingProductivity, Industrial engineering and Work measurement.Recently, he explored the subject of Company dignity, throughexperiences as a Management Consultant of Productivity formore than 20 years in Europe. He has questioned the Qualityof working life in Europe and Japan, distinguishing the habitsof companies, seeking big market share vs. those who strivefor a culture of ethics and dignity. This study motivated hisDoctoral degree in research. The dissertation was publishedas A Study of Company Dignity (SHAKAKU, Companality).---------------------------------------------------------------- |
Q: Kindly make the readers briefly aware of the
role & functions of “Productivity Partner Inc., Japan”.
As professional of management issues especially Productivity,
the role consists of supporting the companies, who wish to find and reach world
class level of Productivity. I have had a lot of unique support, regarding the subjects of Productivity
and profitability, for my clients, who have been in Sweden, Denmark, Finland,
Norway, Germany, UK, Italy, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. The
uniqueness is in larger scale of Productivity and profitability improvement,
such as 500% productivity, 700% profitability improvement. I have effective
technologies and their successful implementing know how as well. One unique
approach to support clients is Methods Design Concept (MDC in brief).
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Q: Could you briefly narrate your contribution in
the field of Consultancy in Japan & elsewhere?
I made a presentation at
International Conference of Management Consultants, Paris. My words in the
presentation are introduced on http://www.conferencepage.com/ftf/forum2003/downloads/Presentation-AndyChestnutt.pdf,
“, as “Changing a business requires dynamite and it is a consultant who lights
the fuse” (Andy Chestnutt,), These are my favourite words, as a management
consultant, while supporting clients.
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Q: What are your specific views about
Productivity in the service sector?
Practices in service sector are so much behind, compared to manufacturing
sector. A key reason of this situation is due to those managements, which are
not interested in Productivity competition. Their interest is such that Productivity
should contribute not only in reducing cost, but also in Customer support. Key
points are setting up definition of Productivity in the service sector and
designing Measurement system. My way for this matter is introduced in my book
as Measurement/monitoring based Management (MBM in brief)
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Q: How many of your books have been published so
far in Japanese and in English languages?
More than ten books written by me in
Japanese language have been published so far. The most recently published Japanese
book is “A study of SHAKAKU (Japanese word), a study of Company dignity” having
327 pages, and its 3000 copies have been sold out. The contents of this book are
based on my “Doctor” dissertation, sub title is “Searching Corporate Maturity”.
One book “Beyond World-Class Productivity-Industrial Engineering Practice and
Theory” has been published in English language, in 2010, by Springer.
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Q; What is
your specific field of writing?
The subjects are Productivity, Profitability
and Industrial Engineering and their importance for improving performance of
companies, namely getting more profits.
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Q: What has been the general assessment of the
reviewers and readers for your books?
It has been very good, due to introducing
the practical way of thinking, with IE technology and concrete approach, based
on my consultancy support experiences.
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Q; What is
your own general assessment of your books?
There is no book like my book, which
explains the practical way of thinking. This book not only explains practical
points of view, but is based on theory and/or basic thinking of real Industrial
engineering theory, with my professional support experiences for clients for 50
years.
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Q; How did
you get the idea to write this book “Beyond World-Class Productivity-Industrial
Engineering Practice and Theory”. Kindly enlighten the readers about the
purpose and uniqueness of this book.
There are a lot of fashionable topics in Productivity improvement such
as TPS (Toyota production system), KANBAN, TQC, KAIZEN and so on, and there will
always be. My question is how much, and how to measure the results of
improvement regarding Productivity. I don’t hate such a way of improvement but do
they contribute to increase in Productivity directly. According to the study of
a Harvard Professor in Japanese company, which is eager to develop TPS, it is
only 200% in 5 years. My experiences which are given in my book, show more than
400% within 2 to 3 years. TPS target is not labour productivity first, I
believe. In general, the people of Management are misunderstanding the effect
of TPS. There are many books which
explain success story of Productivity, but there is a low level of success. I
give a simple example about the success at Olympic level games, regional level
and domestic level games. The best of success should be at Olympic level, as it
is World-Class level Productivity.
Followings are extracts
from the Preface of my book: “You will see plenty of titles defining
useful technologies for inventory and lead-time improvement or participatory
management practice, but it’s not easy to find books concentrating on labor productivity
that introduce basic tools of industrial engineering that can be applied in
various industries. Allow me to draw your attention to a discussion by Consultants
and Professors many years ago in the Journal of
Industrial Engineering.
One of the key points was the introduction of classic IE, or modern IE. The age
of Computer technology came to IE in the form of new applications in Work
measurement and Line balancing; Mechanization or Automation was set to
transform manufacturing. Implementation of Small group activity (SGA) and Lean
production entered many companies. As results regarding Productivity and Cost
reduction were glorified, not only were terms associated with Motion and Time
study virtually eliminated, Industrial engineering itself became lost in translation.
Real gain should be pursuance. For
example, reducing the allocated number of workers to reduce paid-hours
immediately, but accrue the same or more powerful results. This is an example
of “real
gain”.
Management, particularly in human resources departments, is interested in these
types of gains. Industrial engineering
should be a department that fosters
these connections. Industrial engineering tools are effective enough to support
management with these goals in mind. There are a lot of fashionable topics in
Productivity improvement, and there always will be. However, Management and
Industrial engineers together must always look ahead. Basic Industrial
engineering technologies are not hackneyed. Effective results come when
industrial engineers know how to use the technologies and demonstrate their
abilities. This includes going back to the basics. Experts never choose the
tools themselves; as demonstrated in the following chapters; they need only
apply them correctly.”
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Q: Do you consider that this is your best book so
far?
Why not? I wrote many books, papers and presentations so
far, but this book introduces several points of those experiences. It is
difficult to find a basic and practical book of Industrial Engineering (IE in
brief), like my this book. IE is still very effective and useful way for Productivity
enhancing, but some people misunderstand and are out of date about IE. It is a
big question for me.
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Q: Which aspects motivate you to write books?
Earning money/publicity/helping readers/self-satisfaction/others.
First of all, reviewing & summing
up my experiences as manuscript, motivate me well, then the result helps
readers who are interested in my professional field. Many books written by me
on Productivity and Industrial engineering in Japanese language have been
published in Japan. But their market is limited, not only in respect of number
of readers, but also the quality and interest of the readers.
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Q: In your
opinion, is there adequate scope for name/fame/wealth in the field of writing?
I believe so.
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Q: If you were not a writer, in what other way,
you would have expressed your creativity?
Presentations in Conferences, Seminars and
actual Consulting support.
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Q: How have your family members contributed, if
any, in your writing career?
Main contribution has come in the form
of patience of my wife Kiyoko, while my
working hard for preparing the manuscripts.
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Q: What is your advice to the budding authors?
It must not be difficult to write books,
for selling many copies of the books, when writers follow opinion of the publishers.
Authors should be happy when many copies of their books are sold, but authors
should write the contents, considering their beliefs.
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