A practical workshop where you learn by doing. The term literally means "self-learning" in Japanese.
The length of jishuken can range from one week to several months. Toyota's Operations Management Consulting Division established the workshop as a means to develop skills and improve level of TPS in a given department. This often involved supplier operational work projects lasting three to four months. Outside Toyota, jishuken came into vogue in the form of the five-day kaizen workshop. However long a jishuken lasts, its purpose is to learn by doing and realize an improvement in work.