BACKGROUND
The Shingo Prize was established in 1988 to educate, assess and recognize world-class organizations for creating a culture of continuous improvement through employee-empowerment and effective leadership. The philosophy of The Shingo Prize is that a culture of continuous improvement is achieved by focusing on principles of operational excellence, aligning management systems and implementing improvement techniques throughout an entire organization.

AWARD CRITERIA
The Shingo Prize evaluation criteria is based on an overall lean business systems model. Masaaki Imai, Chair, Kaizen Institute, has noted that the Shingo Prize is the only award program in the world focused on lean manufacturing and the elimination of “muda.” The model demands system integration based on proven lean manufacturing and business practices. The Shingo criteria focus on Customer Satisfaction and Profitability; Quality, Cost and Delivery; Lean Core Operations; and Leadership and Empowerment Enablers. A Board of Examiners consisting of over 175 lean leaders throughout North America, representing primarily former Shingo Prize recipient companies, carry out the rigorous process of evaluating the 100 page Achievement Report and the 2-3 day company Site Evaluation Visit.

SHIGEO SHINGO
The Shingo Prize is named in honor of the late Dr. Shigeo Shingo. Dr. Shingo has been described as an “engineering genius” who helped create, train and write about many aspects of the renowned Toyota Production System and related production systems. Many of his improvement principles, such as Single-Minute-Exchange-of-Die (Quick Changeover), Poka-Yoke (Mistake Proofing) and Non-Stock Production (minimum inventory) are described in six books published in the United States.

BOARD OF GOVERNORS
The Board of Governors includes industry leaders (CEO’s, Presidents, etc.) who have
demonstrated lean and world class manufacturing track records in North America. The Board serves as the oversight and policy making body of the Prize. See www.shingoprize.org for a complete listing.

ADMINISTRATION
The Shingo Prize is administered by the Office of Business Relations in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University designated as a Carnegie Foundation Research I University.