Shigeo Shingo "Only the Last Turn" Unisex T-shirt

ONLY THE LAST TURN TIGHTENS THE BOLT

Put your Lean cred on display (on your chest) with this maxim from a legend.

Lean manufacturing experts, operational excellence pros, six sigma peeps, and industrial engineers are going to dig this comic book nod to Shigeo Shingo.

Venezuelan artist Leimar Bolivar posed Shingo as a samurai in front of the shimmering red sun, wielding a screwdriver instead of a katana. 

NOT AVAILABLE IN STORES 

Varieties available: 

• Unisex offered in four muted colors.
• Long sleeve
• Women's fashion fit
• Women's relaxed
• Women's high-waisted

#IYKYK. If you don’t know…

Shigeo Shingo (or Shingō Shigeo to be true to the Japanese name ordering) is the industrial engineer often credited as the preeminent expert on lean manufacturing and the Toyota Production System (AKA TPS). Despite the strong association with the automotive giant, especially in the West, Shingo never was an employee of Toyota. During the period of his career that most of its highlights, he was a consultant.

“Only the last turn tightens the bolt,” was Shingo's concise summary of over-processing, one of the seven wastes. The Toyota Production System’s taxonomy of muda has come to be known as the 7 Wastes:

1. Defects
2. Delay
3. Over-production
4. Over-processing
5. Travel/Transport
6. Inventory
7. Motion

The highly lauded subject of our shirt is the father of poka-yoke, zero quality control, and single minute exchange of die (SMED). Shingo was a deep thinker, a professor, and perhaps most importantly—a chronicler of Lean and the Toyota Production System. He authored at least six books on the subject.

His enduring legacy lives on in the namesake of the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence.

He was mild-mannered and knew how to slice waste from a process, sorta like a samurai. Cinephiles may have noticed the nod to Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece, Seven Samurai.

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LIMITED TIME ONLY!

Our comfy t-shirt is soft and lightweight, with the right amount of stretch. 

Buying in small batches pays! Get an escalating discount when you buy multiple shirts in any combination. Buy 3-4 and get 15% off. Buy 5 and get 20% off. Buy 6+ and get 25% off.

• Artist: Leimar Bolivar (Venezuela)
• 100% combed and ring-spun cotton (heather colors contain polyester)
• Fabric weight: 4.2 oz./yd.² (142 g/m²)
• Pre-shrunk fabric
• Side-seamed construction
• Shoulder-to-shoulder taping
• Blank product sourced from Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, or the US

This product is made especially for you as soon as you place an order, which is why it takes us a bit longer to deliver it to you. Making products on demand instead of in bulk helps reduce overproduction, so thank you for making thoughtful purchasing decisions!

Size guide