During the late 1970s, when Toyota's method was already well refined, Shigeo Shingo participated in one QDC workshop. After he started to publicize details of the Toyota Production System without permission, the business connection was terminated abruptly by Toyota. Shingo moved to the US and started to consult on lean manufacturing. Besides claiming to have invented this quick changeover method (among many other things), he renamed it "Single Minute Exchange of Die" or, in short, SMED. The "Single Minute" stands for a single digit minute (i.e., less than ten minutes). He promoted TPS and SMED in US.