Viewpoint of Kaoru Ishikawa

Ishikawa was the foremost Japanese authority on TQM. The following is excerpted from his book, with brief explanations.

Company-Wide Quality Control a Revolution in Management Philosophy

--known as "the founding father of quality control circles"

Features of company wide quality control

1) quality first, not profit first
2) consumer oriented QC, not producer oriented QC
3) the next process is the customer (redefined customer)
4) an orientation with facts and data application and statistical method (not based on opinion)
5) management which respects humanity: industrial democracy (empowerment)
6) functional management (break down barriers)

14 items showing a different background between Japan and Western countries. These differences make it easier to implement tqm principles in Japan than the US and Europe.

1) Professionalism very common and still strongly maintained in western countries. People know their profession instead of the business
2) labor unions (craft Vs industrial Vs enterprises) Just one union to work with
3. a corps de elite university graduates (rank and class consciousness) Japanese companies more concerned with your job performance than your credentials
4) Taylor system in the West, break job into smallest pieces, control the employee
5) wages (merit Vs seniority) Japanese believe that promotion comes with longevity rather than short term performance
6) organization (line Vs staff, horizontal Vs vertical) span of control larger and number of managerial levels in Japanese companies
7) á high turnover vs permanent employment (layoffs vs security of employment) permanent employment in Japan
8) religion (Christianity Buddhism Confucianism human being ì born good Vs evil) Confucianism believes people are basically good and can be trusted
9) characters (Chinese characters Vs alphabets) Japanese language harder to learn
10) education (willing to learn Vs not willing to learn) more of a learning ethic in the East
11) mono racial Vs multiracial, foreign laborers Japan is a homogeneous society making decision making easier
12) vendee vendor relations Japan builds long term, cooperative relationships with their suppliers
13) peoples' capitalism (stockholders' position) West must make short term decisions to satisfy their stockholders
14) government guidance (strong Vs weak, free competition) Japanese government works with industry to build a stronger international position

Progress of quality control and quality assurance progressed through three steps in Japan

1) inspection oriented quality assurance (where we were)
2) production process control oriented quality assurance (where we are now)
3) new product development oriented quality assurance

Phase I:

inspection oriented quality assurance: producer is responsible for quality assurance both for vendors, and extended to manufacturing
inspection department carried out inspection with consumer in mind
done by inspection department feedback takes a long time.
Data obtained difficult to use to prevent reoccurrence best if manufacturing department caries out self inspection
automated inspection should be considered when the process becomes very fast
must strive beyond 1%, etc.
quality levels reworked material
many times breaks down easier 2.

Phase II:

Process Control Oriented Quality Assurance (2nd phase)
increased usage of process control and control charts rather than ìn sampling inspection.
increased outgoing level to parts per million (defect rate in parts per million) and produced cheaper and more reliable parts
amount of rework reduced
need an involve departments purchasing, production engineering, and manufacturing. Must include all employees

Stage III:

quality assurance oriented
new product development implicitly considered in new product development
Company wide quality control in revolutionary breakthrough in management philosophy

six basic features of this breakthrough

1) quality first
2) consumer oriented QC
3) the next process is the customer
4) talk with facts and data
5) respect humanity; industrial democracy
6) functional management

Many American companies are currently in stage II, and proceeding to stage III.

It is interesting to review Ishikawa's differences between the East (Japan) and the West (United States, Europe). Even if we do not agree with all of them, they can provide the basis of discussion or issues which must be addressed when implementing total quality programs.