Kaoru Ishikawa and His Impact on Quality in Business
As with many people who are at the forefront of a cultural movement or paradigm shift, Kaoru Ishikawa’s contribution to Total Quality Management is sometimes over shadowed by other contributors. This comes as no surprise in learning about some of his fundamental beliefs in applied statistical analytics and total quality philosophy. He felt that by applying Quality Control properly, “the irrational behavior of industry and society could be corrected” (Ishikawa, K; 3)
By his own admission Dr. Ishikawa became involved in Quality Control by way of data analytics. He began studying statistical methods while at the University of Tokyo; he found the data from his experiments to be widely scattered making it impossible to reach accurate conclusions. At that time the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) had the very information he felt would serve and asked to see their materials on statistical methods. In exchange for the use of the materials Ishikawa became one of the instructors and his fascination with statistical methods and QC was born.
Genius is often the ability to see around the corners, to see the limitless possibilities with the simplest elements in front of you. Ishikawa’s commitment to Japan’s economic recovery gave him the vision to apply statistical methods and Quality Control in an organized systematic measurable manner. In his personal quest for finding the correct conclusions he was able to help revolutionize management in his own country of Japan and share that revolution with the world. In his book What is Total Quality Control, Ishikawa speaks to what QC can bring to every industry everywhere in the world; not only increasing productivity or lowering costs but improving energy and raw material usage. His hope for what he has helped to develop in QC is about peoples all over the world