This is an update on the printing of Taiichi Ohno's Workplace Management.

We've located the Ohno books and they are in stacks on the printing floor, waiting for binding. When we sent the file for the cover, we got the size wrong so they didn't print it. We screwed up.

The printer somehow didn't communicate this to us for several weeks, we're not sure why. Those books aren't doing anyone any good on the floor without binding. To those of you who have kindly pointed out that the kaizen mind requires making "no excuses," I hasten to add that we are not.

This whole episode reminded me of Chapter 35: The Monaka System, one of the less appreciated and less understood chapters in Ohno's book. The monaka is a Japanese sweet with a bread-like shell and a sweet core. Ohno recommends making dies in similar ways, with replaceable cores. He states:

Likewise with the dies in a press, the “shell” can be used for anything. If the core of the die is hollowed out, and you build and change out the “sweet bean” section, you can make dies rather quickly. We are actually trying this concept in one area of our company.

So perhaps for all Gemba Press books we should use a very generic cover, just white, with the title stamped on in black letters one at a time after the contents have been glued in. These shells could be mass produced ahead of time. Then again this would not be very appealing.

When we know that the glue is dry on the bindings and the books are ready to ship, we will give you another update.