Kaoru Ishikawa

Kaoru Ishikawa (Japanese石川 馨; born 1915, Tokyo, † 16 April 1989) was a Japanese chemist who has developed numerous quality tools, among others named after him Ishikawa diagram ( 1943). He is considered the father of Japanese quality control. His father Ishikawa Ichirō was the first president of the trade association Keidanren and his younger brother Rokuro Ishikawa, the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Life

Ishikawa earned his degree in 1939 as a chemist at the University of Tokyo and collected after work experience at the Nissan Liquid Fuels Co., Ltd.. before joining as a technical specialist officer in the Japanese Navy. In 1943, he developed his first cause-and- effect diagram ( Cause -and- Effect Diagram), also known as a fishbone diagram. This problem sources were tracked down by materials, methods, machines and humans and is one of the seven basic quality tools ( "Seven Tools of Quality", also abbreviated Q7. )

From 1949 Ishikawa member of the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers was ( JUSE ) and worked in the research group quality assurance, while he taught in parallel at the University of Tokyo. Within this period, the quality assurance Circle in 1962 officially developed and applied as a group-oriented concept that has been around the world as quality circles (Quality Circle ) is known.

Ishikawa is considered a pioneer of quality-related activities in Japan, where he was for a time president of the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers and proponents of activities for the benefit of Japan especially for Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry ( MITI).

Company -Wide Quality Control

Building on the work of Deming, Juran and Feigenbaum presented Ishikawa especially the Company -Wide Quality Control ( CWQC ) as employee related concept, which was used for company-wide quality work. It involved all the employees of a at all levels and all activities in the product development process have here the fulfillment of customer requirements to the target.

The quality of underlying philosophy can be summed up in the following key messages:

• Quality is more important than short-term profit
• Customer focus of our quality policy throughout the product development process
• Building customer - supplier relationships across the enterprise
• Use of data and facts with the help of statistical methods
• Consideration of humanitarian and social aspects
• Involvement and participation of all employees along the management levels (strategic, tactical, operational level)
• Introduction of quality circles at all levels

The concept is based on authoritative on the total quality management, with the largest difference in the strong employee focus is quality and tasks throughout the company and not be distributed to specific departments.

Works

• What Is Total Quality Control: The Japanese Way, Prentice Hall, 1985, ISBN 978-0139524332.
• How to operate QC Circle Activities, Amer Society for Quality, 1985. ISBN 978-9999943109
• Guide to Quality Control, Asian Productivity Organization, 1986. ISBN 978-9283310358