ON THE TABLETOP IMPROVEMENT EXPERIMENTS OF JAPAN

Abstract

Originally conceived by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, the “tabletop improvement experiments” have been used in Japan since 1925 to teach important principles of continuous improvement. The experiments, designed for classroom use, communicate their lessons in a striking and memorable way. The work‐related experiments categorize the sources of resistance to change and show how to neutralize them. The process‐related experiments sharpen understanding of where the biggest opportunities for process improvement usually lie. Surprisingly, the experiments are hardly known in the West. We describe all of them and document their history for the first time.