Norman Bodek
| Norman Bodek | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Teacher, consultant and author |
| Known for | Introducing Lean to US manufacturing |
Norman Bodek is a teacher, consultant, author and publisher,; he founded Productivity Press, and is currently President of PCS Press.
He has published over 100 Japanese management books in English, and taught the Best of Japanese management at Portland State University.
In 1979, after working for 18 years with data processing companies, Bodek started Productivity Inc. and Press (which became an imprint of CRC Press) by publishing a newsletter called 'Productivity'.
In 1980, he attended an Industry Week conference in New York, where Joji Arai, manager with Japan Productivity Center, spoke about his role in bringing Japanese business people to the US to study American industry. Bodek asked Arai if he could bring Americans to Japan to study Japanese management. Arai agreed and set up Bodek's first study mission to Japan.
Productivity Press discovered Shigeo Shingo in 1981 and published some of its first books in 1983 and 1985.
Bodek's fascination with manufacturing led him to Japan and a lifelong exploration of the methods behind Japanese quality and productivity.
Over three decades, up until 2016, Bodek went to Japan 86 times, visited more than 250 plants and published over 250 management books. As a fortune cookie once told him, "You have the talent to discover the talent in others."
Bodek claims to have found tools, techniques and new thoughts that have revolutionized the world of manufacturing. He met Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Joseph Juran, Phil Crosby, Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, Dr. Yoji Akao, Mr. Taiichi Ohno, Dr. Shigeo Shingo and other manufacturing masters and published many of their books in English. Each person he met gave him a new perspective on continuous improvement, and helped him to better understand links between the functional areas of the Toyota management system, and the value of Lean, Kaizen in achieving quality and continuous improvement.
Bodek lead more than 25 study missions to Japan. He was one of the first to publish books and training materials on SMED, CEDAC,Quality Control Circles, 5S, and the Visual FactoryTotal Productive Maintenance,Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen and Kaizen Blitz, Cell Design,Poka-Yoke, Andon, Hoshin Kanri, and Kanban. Other books followed, on topics including total quality management.
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