The encyclopedia · Engineering & Operations · Operational decision · 2021–2023
Panasonic's 'kaizen masters' transplanted Toyota's method and doubled productivity
Twenty Toyota-trained 'denshoshi' taught kaizen across Panasonic's plants; Kobe productivity rose 1.6x in one year.
Panasonic Holdings
the move
In 2021, Panasonic's new president Yuki Kusumi admitted a company-wide weakness: people did their assigned work faithfully but rarely improved it. His answer was a CEO-owned 'Operation Strategy Division' with fewer than 20 'denshoshi' (inheritance masters) who carry Toyota-style kaizen into group factories worldwide.
The trigger was a 2019 typhoon that stopped Panasonic's Koriyama plant in Fukushima. A recovery the company thought would take about a year was done in three months once Toyota-style waste-removal know-how was applied; the division head said it was not a miracle, just concentrating on real work.
Results followed: the Kobe plant making Let's Note PCs lifted productivity 1.6x in one year; the Tsuruga automotive-components plant doubled it. Panasonic Automotive Systems added AI analysis of 24/7 camera footage, cutting analysis man-hours and pushing Tsuruga to 2x in nine months.
why it works
- A tiny team is cheaper than a transformation program and cannot be diluted by bureaucracy.
- Teaching, not commanding, changes daily habits at the gemba where value is made.
- Proven results at two flagship plants made other factories ask to be next.
- The CEO's direct ownership removed the excuse that kaizen was someone else's job.
what transfers
A method you already trust can spread through dedicated teachers, not consultants: put a small elite team under the CEO, give it a clear mission, and let proven sites become the proof.
what came after
By 2023 Panasonic was rolling the method out as 'Panasonic genba kaizen-do', used in its manufacturing training institute; the denshoshi model spread to overseas group sites, and the program became a standard answer to the group's low-efficiency reputation.
references
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