Viewpoint of Kaoru Ishikawa Company-Wide Quality Control a Revolutionin Management ě 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
4) an orientation with facts and data application and statistical method
5) management which respects humanity: industrial democracy
6) functional management

14 items showing a different background between Japan and Western countries

1)Professionalism very common and still strongly maintained in westerncountries
2) labor unions (craft Vs industrial Vs enterprises)
3. a corps de elite university graduates (rank and class consciousness)
4) Taylor system
5) wages (merit Vs seniority)
6) organization (line Vs staff, horizontal Vs vertical)
7) á high turnover vs permanent employment (layoffs vs security ofemployment)
8) religion (Christianity Buddhism Confucianism human being ě borngood Vs evil)
9) characters (Chinese characters Vs alphabets)
10) education (willing to learn Vs not willing to learn)
11) monoracial Vs multiracial, foreign laborers
12) vendee-vendor relations
13) peoples' capitalism (stockholders' position)
14) government guidance (strong Vs weak, free competition)

Progress of quality control and quality assurance progressed through3 steps in Japan

1) inspection oriented quality assurance
2) production-process-control oriented quality assurance
3) new-product-development oriented quality assurance inspection orientedquality assurance producer is responsible for quality assurance both forvendors--and extended to manufacturing inspection department carried outinspection with consumer in mind iľá done by inspection department feedbacktakes a long time.

Data obtained difficult to use to prevent reoccurrence best if manufacturingdepartment caries out self inspection automated inspection should be consideredwhen the process becomes very fast must strive beyond 1%, etc. qualitylevels reworked material many times breaks down easier 2.

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

Stage III: quality assurance oriented new product development implicitlyconsidered in new product development Company wide quality control in revolutionarybreakthrough 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

Go back to week 2 summary

This document created by David Lewis 6/20/96

Last modified