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When you cook at home, what is the first thing you think about?
"What should I make?" "What's in the fridge?"
"Are there any ingredients that I'm missing?" "Do I need to go shopping?"
"What time should we eat?" "What steps should we take to make it?"

The order in which you think about things may differ from person to person, but you probably think about the above. Let's say you're making curry rice and salad. Let's say you have onions, potatoes, lettuce, and tomatoes in the refrigerator. To make curry rice and salad, you'll need meat or seafood, and carrots. At this point, you'll probably go to the supermarket to buy the ingredients you're missing. Or, you'll come up with a plan to ask a family member who is about to get home to buy the remaining ingredients.

Now, let's start cooking. The rice is washed and prepared for cooking, the meat and vegetables are prepared, and the curry begins. Housewives (househusbands) use their brains to do their housework, making things like a salad while the curry ingredients are simmering, so that the food is ready to be eaten at the right time.

In this way, housewives have to think about many things and use their brains to the fullest when cooking at home. This involves the basics of "IE (Industrial Engineering)," which I will discuss below, such as "inventory management" in the refrigerator, "cost accounting" and "budget control" regarding money, "quality control" regarding deliciousness, "production management" to schedule cooking so that meals can be prepared efficiently, and "task management" to decide where to place what in the kitchen so that it can be accessed quickly.

According to the Japan IE Association, "IE" is defined as "the activity of exploring ways to use management resources such as people, materials, money, information, and time effectively and scientifically to provide the products and services that the market demands in a timely manner that are of high quality and at low cost, while also bringing satisfaction and happiness to the people who achieve this."

If we compare it to a housewife's "cooking activities," it would be to use "materials (food), money, time, etc." efficiently and effectively, provide delicious food at the right time to the customers (family), and bring satisfaction and happiness to the family... A skillful housewife who can clean up while cooking can truly be called an "IE" professional.

In order to effectively use resources such as "people, things, money, information, and time" and improve productivity, it is important to solve problems on a daily basis, that is, "improvement." There is a phrase I would like you to remember as the "philosophy of improvement."

"There is always a better way."

Let's say a mother has a problem: "It takes too long to cook, so all the housework gets pushed aside, and I end up losing sleep." She will analyze the problem, find out what the problem was, and think about the steps and time for cooking, so that she can get more sleep the next day. This is "improvement." In order to "improve," it is important to first visualize your "dreams" and "what you want to be."

 

I am currently 51 years old and am a university professor helping companies improve their operations. My dream for five years from now is to enjoy research with students (as a university professor) and to enjoy making improvements with companies. I believe that what is necessary to achieve this is to increase the number of interesting research topics and improve my own ability to improve. After retirement, I want to be someone that everyone needs, and I want to spend every day having fun with everyone. In the distant future, when I die, I want to be remembered by people as "someone like this," and I want to increase the number of friends I want to meet again in heaven and drink with.

 

By picturing your dreams, you can correctly grasp reality, visualize your ideal dream, and clarify what is necessary to achieve it. This is problem solving itself. Don't overthink it, just try picturing your own dreams while paying attention to the following points.

 

1. Drawing and cartooning
2. Draw by time, such as the near future and future
3. Drawing by space such as personal, home, and office
4. Update your near-future dream every year
5. Draw with consideration for environmental changes, including negative situations
6. Create a higher ideal

 

It is important to dream and wish for your dreams. If you wish for something, there is a possibility that it will come true, but if you don't wish for it, nothing will happen. It's like a lottery ticket that you can't win if you don't buy it.
The biggest benefit of having a dream is that it gives you courage. In addition, the word "dream" can make you feel positive and cheerful, as it can remove restrictions, help you know what you need to do now, and help you take the first step with confidence.

Once you have a dream, start making small improvements towards that dream. By making improvements one step at a time, you will acquire the ability to improve and grow. When you do this, I would like you to take three main steps. Please see the table below.

Step (1) is the "keyword for observing the phenomenon closely." It is very important to correctly grasp the reality and find out what the problem is in step (1), and this is the start of "improvement." Pay particular attention to "seeing" and "listening" carefully, and "thinking simply."
Step (2) is the key to generating many good ideas. Start by questioning your assumptions.
Step (3) is the "keyword for improving your dream." Think about the following problem.

It would be easy to draw nine points in one stroke with five lines. However, in this problem, you can only use four straight lines. So, how will you arrive at the answer? The key to solving this problem is "changing your perspective."

At first glance, you might be tempted to think of it as being within the square frame made by nine points, but if you draw the lines beyond the frame, as if drawing an umbrella, you will be able to draw it in one stroke with four straight lines.

Furthermore, let's consider the case of three lines and one straight line.

Exercise: Solution to the Nine Dot Problem

Similarly, for three lines, you can draw three lines in one stroke by going far beyond the frame, thinking of the circle of dots as having an area, and connecting the lines diagonally within the area of the circle. For one line, you can draw one line in one stroke by thinking of this line as a very thick line and drawing it to fill in all nine dots.

Even if you don't know what to do about a problem like this, or if you can't think of a solution, you can find the answer by thinking outside the box and trying to solve the problem by changing your way of thinking. Start with small improvements, solve the problem by changing your way of thinking, and keep doing that until you achieve your dream.

"IE" is an academic field that was born in the United States about 120 years ago, and one of the most famous examples is Toyota Motor's "lean production system." In the 1950s, the late Vice President Taiichi Ohno began reforming factories, with the central focus being "valuing every minute and second on the shop floor." The improvement activities were centered around "seven waste elimination," "just-in-time (JIT)," and "automation," and are known as the lean production system, which is still being studied today.

Last year, I studied for a year at Pennsylvania State University, the first university in the United States, and therefore the world, to establish an "IE" department, and one-third of the lectures on production were about Japanese "kaizen" (improvement), with a focus on Toyota's "lean manufacturing system." Japan's "monozukuri" (manufacturing) and the "continuously improving technology" that accompanies it are so famous that the world continues to study them, and they are something to be proud of.

"IE" is a discipline that broadly studies "people," "things," "money," "information," and "time," finds scientifically effective approaches, and engages in activities to increase productivity. By collecting, analyzing, and diagramming each piece of data, waste becomes visible. By eliminating that waste, you can find activities that will increase productivity more efficiently. "IE" is about collecting various data, thinking about it, and making improvements in pursuit of your dreams.

I want you to reaffirm that IE, which is being effectively used in factories and companies throughout Japan and the world, is something you have already experienced in your daily life and that it is useful to you. And I hope that you will move forward with small improvements as you work toward your own dreams. Let me ask you again: This is where IE starts.

"What is your dream?"

(Published in 2012)