Gwendolyn Galsworth

Gwendolyn Galsworth is an American author and consultant focusing on visual workplaces and visual management. Her books have won multiple Shingo Prize awards in the Research and Professional Publication category.

Galsworth was one of the ten original members a team assembled by Norman Bodek in the early 1980s to document and explain what was then called The Japanese Manufacturing Miracle, exemplified by the Toyota Production System through books and resources from Japan.

Early life and education

Gwendolyn Galsworth was born in upper New York State. She was raised in New Jersey and graduated from Montclair State Teachers College. After teaching Latin in New Jersey, she started an acting career in New York, studying at the Gene Frankel Studio and performing in plays. Galsworth later traveled to Europe where she studied French at the Sorbonne, learned Italian, and acted in Paris and London. Returning to New York, Galsworth joined the experimental acting group, The Performance Group (Richard Schechner), and then traveled to Poland to study with experimental director, Jerzy Grotowski. This was followed by an invitation to audition for Peter Brook and his London-based National Repertory Theatre. She later enrolled in a Master’s Program/Hunter College in Special Education for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired.

Galsworth received both her Masters and PhD in Education and Statistics from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

Awards

• 2024: Inducted into the Shingo Academy as lifetime member
• 2011: Awarded the Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award for her book, Work That Makes Sense: Operator-led Visuality ^[1]
• 2006: Awarded the Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award for her book, Visual Workplace/Visual Thinking: Creating Enterprise Excellence Through the Technologies of the Visual Workplace ^[2]

Bibliography

Galsworth has written seven books on workplace visuality and other core improvement methods.

• Smart Simple Design: Using Variety Effectiveness to Reduce Total Cost and Maximize Customer Selection (John Wiley, 1994)
• Visual Systems: Harnessing the Power of the Visual Workplace (Amacom, 1997). Visual Workplace/Visual Order Associate Handbook and Visual Workplace/Visual Order Instructor Guide (Visual-Lean Enterprise Press, 1998)
• Visual Workplace/Visual Thinking: Creating Enterprise Excellence Through the Technologies of the Visual Workplace (Visual-Lean Enterprise Press, 2005)
• Work That Makes Sense: Operator-Led Visuality (Visual-Lean Enterprise Press, 2011)

References

1. "The Shingo Prize – A World Standard…For a Global Economy". Shingoprize.org. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
2. "Shingo Prize : Past Recipients" (PDF). Shingoprize.org. Retrieved 2013-10-04.