What is ‘Keiken Ganai?
Keiken stands for ‘experience, maturity’
Ganai (Ga Nai) means: ‘does not have’
Keiken Ganai means ‘does not have experience or maturity’.
Within Lean or Monozukuri different levels of understanding of the process and tools can be wittnest.
‘Keiken Ganai’ is used to describe people who think they know, but whose actual understanding does not go beyond a shallow and mechanical use of tools, rather than experiencing the deep and spiritual meaning behind it.
Keiken Ganai expresses the gap in perception: When someone thinks (and expresses) to be in the Ri stage, but is actually rather in the Shu stage.
In the western Lean-community we hear the (not so flattering) words ‘Tool-heads’ or ‘Toolies’.