Nov 24 2011
Sushi versus Raw Fish: Use foreign words only when you can’t help it
Via Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
James Hereford, COO of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, prefers to use the original Japanese terms when deploying Lean, arguing that it doesn’t really matter whether words are Japanese or English, and that many Lean terms have no exact translation. While it is true for Kaizen or Kanban, it is not for Gemba, which he gives as an example. Gemba just means “actual place,” nothing more. As a general term, in English, it is not very telling but, in context, it can be replaced with shop floor, lab, operating room, race track, or back office, and there are more urgent things to do to implement Lean than burdening your audience with new, unnecessary words. My main concern in the field is to communicate as effectively and as precisely as possible, and I have found it easier with words my audience already knows, used literally when possible, and metaphorically when not.
People choose words for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with conveying a meaning, such as the following:
- Avoiding the emotional or historical baggage of a familiar word. Recycling the vocabulary of a past, failed program makes the new one less likely to succeed.
- Establishing their credentials as members of a group. Using the right jargon is more “professional” than using plain, everyday words. The audience then understands much better the speaker’s position than the meaning of the words.
- Leveraging ambiguity. New words are more likely to be taken to mean different things to different people, making the appearance of agreement easier to establish. This is a common practice of sales people.
Foreign words can serve all of these purposes, which I don’t pursue.
I still think foreign words are OK when:
- They have no local equivalent
- They are short.
- They are easy to pronounce.
Takt is German for musical bar or stroke, as in a four-stroke engine, and I have never seen a reasonable English equivalent to it in takt time. On the other hand, Kevin Hop and I struggled with the Japanese zentenatamadashi, which even Google knows nothing about. Literally, it means “all items sticking out their heads,” and Honda engineer Ray Sanders translated it as “Single-Piece Presentation.” We adopted it because it is accurate, descriptive, easy to remember, and no longer than the original.
November 25, 2011 @ 7:48 am
Here are my thoughts (and my readers’ comments) on this topic — and I linked back to your post:
http://www.leanblog.org/2011/11/an-interesting-take-on-the-use-of-japanese-terms-in-lean/
November 25, 2011 @ 7:49 am
I’d also argue that “kaizen” does have a perfectly serviceable English translation (though it’s missing context) — “continuous improvement.” But I still use the term “kaizen” because it’s simpler, as I’d also tend to use “gemba” because of the context associated there.
November 26, 2011 @ 6:46 am
Serviceable, yes, but perfect, no. First, with seven syllables to Kaizen’s two, it’s too long. Sometimes people abbreviate it as CI, but that is an acronym, another category to use sparingly unless you want to sound like NASA or Defense.
Second, the meanings overlap maybe 80% but not 100%. Both in Japan and in the US, Kaizen is used to designate activities that don’t qualify as continuous. For example, Sekine & Arai’s Kaizen for Quick Changeover does not contain any discussion of continuous improvement, and it is not a mistranslation, because the word Kaizen is in the original Japanese title, which means “Improvement methods for instant changeover.” And, in the US, there is the Japanese-German oxymoron “Kaizen Blitz,” which would be a “lightning strike of continuous improvement.”
In US financial statements, you “continuous improvement” is also used to describe a company’s steadily rising quarterly profits, which may or may not be due to Kaizen…
When choosing words, it is also a good idea to check what comes back when you google them. i shot myself in the foot calling this blog “Manufacturing Pearls,” meaning gem-like clever ideas from manufacturing people. Google thinks it is about cultured pearls and actual jewelry. .
November 25, 2011 @ 1:26 pm
should be “sashimi vs. raw fish”
November 26, 2011 @ 6:45 am
You are right. Many years ago, I heard the competitiion between suppliers of database management systems described as follows: “Oracle was selling raw fish and calling it sushi, while Ingres was selling sushi and calling it raw fish.”
The metaphor was not quite right, but it stuck in my memory.
December 31, 2011 @ 7:20 am
Jorge Ros Sr. in the Lean & Kaizen discussion group on LinkedIn, commented as follows:
December 31, 2011 @ 7:22 am
Cecile Roche, in the Lean & Kaizen discussion group on LinkedIn, commented as follows:
December 31, 2011 @ 7:25 am
Steve Proctor, in the Lean & Kaizen discussion group on LinkedIn, commented as follows:
December 31, 2011 @ 7:28 am
Christer Petersson, in the Lean & Kaizen discussion group on LinkedIn, commented as follows:
December 31, 2011 @ 8:05 am
John W. Gill, PE, LEED AP, in the Lean Construction Institute discussion group on LinkedIn, commented as follows:
December 31, 2011 @ 8:08 am
Aaron Preston, in the Lean Construction Institute discussion group on LinkedIn, commented as follows:
My response:
Touché! Ted Mayeshiba also pointed out that the equivalent of raw fish was sashimi, not sushi. I was in fact quoting something I heard a long time ago about a rivalry in the software business. Company A was “selling raw fish and calling it sushi,” while Company B was “selling sushi and calling it raw fish.” Company A still dominates the market today; Company B was acquired and changed hands multiple times, and the product is now open source.
December 31, 2011 @ 8:10 am
Ryan Miller, in the Lean Construction Institute discussion group on LinkedIn, commented as follows:
December 31, 2011 @ 8:13 am
Bruce Roorda, in the Lean Construction Institute discussion group on LinkedIn, commented as follows:
January 2, 2012 @ 2:36 pm
Comment in the PEX Network & IQPC – Lean Six Sigma & Process Excellence for Continuous Improvement discussion group on LinkedIn: