User:Ksihapanya/Kaoru Ishikawa

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Kaoru Ishikawa (石川 馨, Ishikawa Kaoru, July 13, 1915 – April 16, 1989) was a prominent Japanese organizational theorist and professor at the University of Tokyo in the fields of engineering and science. He is famous for his contributions to quality management, and he played a vital role in shaping Japan's quality initiatives, notably with the quality circle. He is globally recognized for creating the Ishikawa diagram (Fishbone diagram/Cause and effect diagram), a widely-used tool for analyzing industrial processes.

Biography

Kaoru Ishikawa was born in Tokyo, Japan on July 13, 1915. He was the eldest of nine children (8 sons and 1 daughter) of Ichiro Ishikawa and Tomiko Ishikawa. In 1939,he graduated from Tokyo Imperial University (University of Tokyo), with an engineering degree in applied chemistry. After college, he worked as a naval technical officer from 1939 to 1941. From 1941 to 1947, Ishikawa worked at the Nissan Liquid Fuel Company. In 1947, Ishikawa began his academic career as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo.

In 1949, Ishikawa joined a quality control research group, known as the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). It was during this time post-World War II, that Japan became an economic powerhouse. This period of Japanese history, is often referred to as the "Japanese economic miracle". Although this was achieved due to the rapid development of Japan's manufacturing and industrial sectors, it was Ishikawa's teachings of quality-improvement initiatives that helped mobilize large groups of people towards a specific common goal. He translated, integrated and expanded the management concepts of W. Edwards Deming and Joseph M. Juran into the Japanese system. Ishikawa used this concept to define how continuous improvement (kaizen) can be applied to processes when all variables are known.

In 1958, he received his doctorate with an engineering degree in applied chemistry from the University of Tokyo. From 1960 to 1976, he became a Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Science at the University of Tokyo. During this period of his life, Ishikawa introduced the concept of quality circles (1962) in conjunction with JUSE. This concept began as an experiment to see what effect the "leading hand" (Gemba-cho) could have on quality. It was a natural extension of these forms of training to all levels of an organization (the top and middle managers having already been trained). Although many companies were invited to participate, only one company at the time, Nippon Telephone & Telegraph, accepted. Quality circles would soon become very popular and form an important link in a company's Total Quality Management system. Ishikawa would write two books on quality circles (QC Circle Koryo and How to Operate QC Circle Activities).

According to Quality Digest, one of his efforts to promote quality were the Annual Quality Control Conference for Top Management (1963) and several books on quality control (the Guide to Quality Control (1968) contained the first published example of a Pareto chart.) He was the chairman of the editorial board of the monthly Statistical Quality Control. Ishikawa was involved in international standardization activities. In 1978, Ishikawa became the president of of the Musashi Institute of Technology (currently known as Tokyo City University). In 1982, Ishikawa developed the Ishikawa diagram (Fishbone diagram/Cause and effect diagram), which is used to determine the root causes of an event.

In 1989, he died from intracerebral hemorrhage .

After his death, Joseph M. Juran delivered this eulogy:

"There is so much to be learned by studying how Dr. Ishikawa managed to accomplish so much during a single lifetime. In my observation, he did so by applying his natural gifts in an exemplary way. He was dedicated to serving society rather than serving himself. His manner was modest, and this elicited the cooperation of others. He followed his own teachings by securing facts and subjecting them to rigorous analysis. He was completely sincere, and as a result was trusted completely."

Connections

• Father - Ichiro Ishikawa
• Mother - Tomiko Ishikawa
• Grandmother - Kane Ishikawa
• Brother - Shichiro Ishikawa
• Brother - Rokuro Ishikawas
• Brother - Makoto Ishikawa
• Brother - Kiyoshi Ishikawa
• Brother - Hachiro Ishikawa
• Sister - Yasuyo Ishikawa
• Wife - Keiko Ishikawa
• Son - Tadashi Ishikawa
• Daughter - Hiroko Kurokawa (Ishikawa)
• Son - Akira Ishikawa

Contributions to improvement of quality

• User-friendly quality control.
• Developed the Ishikawa diagram (Fishbone diagram/Cause and effect diagram).
• Implementation of quality circles.
• Emphasized the internal customer.
• Shared vision.
• Important figure in the development of Kaizen (continual improvement).

Awards and recognition

• Ishikawa received many awards and recognition in his life time, the most notable ones are listed down below:
  • Received the Deming Prize for contributions to the field of Quality and Business, 1952.
  • Received the ASQ's Eugene L. Grant Award, 1972.
  • Received the Blue Ribbon Medal by the Japanese Government for achievements in industrial standardization, 1977.
  • Received the Walter A. Shewhart Medal for distinguished technical leadership in the field of modern quality control, 1982.
  • Received the Order of the Sacred Treasures, 2nd class, Gold and Silver Star, by the Japanese government, 1988.

Publications

• Ishikawa has wrote 31 books, most notable:
  • Ishikawa, Kaoru (1968). Guide to Quality Control. Tokyo: Asian Productivity Organization.
  • Ishikawa, Kaoru (1980) [original Japanese ed. 1970]. QC Circle Koryo : General Principles of the QC Circle. Tokyo: QC Circle Headquarters, Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers.
  • Ishikawa, Kaoru (1985). How to Operate QC Circle Activities. Tokyo: QC Circle Headquarters, Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers.
  • Ishikawa, Kaoru (1985) [First published in Japanese 1981]. What is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way [Originally titled: TQC towa Nanika—Nipponteki Hinshitsu Kanri]. D. J. Lu (trans.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-952433-9.
  • Ishikawa, Kaoru (1990). Introduction to Quality Control. J. H. Loftus (trans.). Tokyo: 3A Corporation. ISBN 4-906224-61-X. OCLC 61341428.