‘Dantotsu’ is a Japanese term which means ‘extreme,’ ‘radical,’ or ‘unparalleled.’ Some times it can be referred as ‘best’ and ‘outstanding’.
Even when an organization is doing well there is always needs to do better, especially in terms of quality performance of its operations. Here applying ‘dantotsu’ approach would mean 'number one thinking' to attain the best quality.
One of the organization’s that applied this tool to achieve extreme results in quality is the ‘Toyota’ company. In 2006, They requested assistance from Sadao Nomura. The initial request was for Nomura to support quality improvement in three global operations that had become part of them through acquisition: US, Sweden, and France. The improvement activities were so powerful that they were also adopted at the parent operations in Japan.
Benefit
Quality standards and disciplines are different all around the world as it usually depends on the local industrial strategies. As a result, this causes problems for global industries who often desire to maintain their parent company’s quality standards while trying to compete in the local market.
Thus, dantotsu is needed to consistently manage to integrate all of these differences into a single companywide approach. Therefore, when these standalone local concepts are integrated into the seamless total companywide matrix with the intention to make that organization the best in its business; in Japanese terms this implies as 'Dantotsu'.
More details:
- In the context of dantotsu, knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient. Knowledge alone cannot initiate an effective implementation. Hence, collection of these is baseline:
- Best learnt under experts’ guidance.
- Best practiced in real-time situations.
- It can be summed up as company-wide quality work, of, by and for all in an organization. In essence, this means that 'quality' is everybody's responsibility from the top management to lower level. Implementing Dantotsu in Management systems can develop such strengths that can hold and sustain growth to many generations.
- With time the essence of dantotsu has become limited due to its wider scope in organization. But large number of companies who wants to be ‘Best of The Best’ is following and making dantotsu as their cultural part.
Remember “harnessing these best practices and skills to achieve organizational goals” should be prime focus to become “best of the best”.
