Era Two - The Gurus - Kaoru Ishikawa


Ishikawa is a forgotten guru to many in the world of quality. His contributions were very basic, similar to the work of the statisticians. Ishikawa is remembered for his books on the tools of quality. He contributed the term "Seven Tools of Quality." These tools are: (1) histograms, (2) cause and effect diagrams, (3) check sheets, (4) Pareto diagrams, (5) graphs, (6) control charts, and (7) scatter diagrams. Although he did not develop any of these tools, he put them into wide use. He used these tools because they were simple. He believed that 90% of all problems can be solved by the use of simple tools.

A simple tool that Ishikawa developed and put into wide use in Japan is the Quality Circle. This was developed because he believed that "QC begins with the interaction of people." 3 Quality circles eventually led to the development of team concepts around the world.

Ishikawa also believed in the concept of Company Wide Quality Control (CWQC). He felt that CWQC would be used world wide and would improve all countries quality and economy. The basic conditions for successful CWQC are as follows:

  1. All employees should clearly understand the aim of the company in order to introduce and promote CWQC.

  2. The features of CWQC of the whole company, of departments, and of branches should be clarified. People should have confidence in these features.

  3. The effective PDCA (plan-do-check-act) cycle should rotate in the whole company, in branches, in plants, and in workshops for at lease three to five years. Statistical quality and process analyses should be adequately carried out, and upstream control should be developed and effectively used.

  4. The company should have the capability of establishing a long term plan of CWQC and of carrying it out systematically.

  5. The walls between departments-or sectionalism-should be broken down, and cross functional management should be effectively carried out.

  6. Everyone should act with confidence, believing that his or her work will bear fruit.

In addition, the following indices should be used to signify successful CWQC:

  1. Development of new product progresses on schedule.

  2. The percent defective, including rework, is lower than 5 percent one week after the start of mass production.

  3. The product sells very well without customer complaints.

Finally, four points that totally encompass the beliefs of Kaoru Ishikawa:

  1. Revolution in the philosophy of management; that is, management in which humanity is respected.

  2. Company Wide Quality Control.

  3. Effective use of catch phrases that are adapted to the trend of the times.

  4. Quality first concept; that is, customer satisfaction.4

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