13-08-2019

Dr. KAORU ISHIKAWA

Born in Tokyo, studied applied chemistry at TATIUC

Worked with Japanese Navy, Nisson Liquid Fuel Company, University

of Tokyo, Musashi Institute of Technology

Prominent member of JUSE and involved in international

standardisation activities

Recipient of
Eugene L. Grant award from American Society for Quality
Blue Ribbon Medal from the Government of Japan
Walter A Shewart Medal from US
Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Emperor of Japan

Pacific Asia Quality Association and ASQ have instituted medals and
prices in his name.

Dr. KAORU ISHIKAWA - CONTRIBUTIONS

• Developed the concept “Company Wide Quality Control (CWQC)” - participation from the top
to the bottom of an organization and from the start to the finish of the product life cycle.
• Introduced the concept “Internal Customer” - the next (downstream process) is your customer
• Studied under Deming, Juran and Feigenbaum, and adapted their principles of Total Quality
Control for Japanese.
Member of Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) is instrumental for many
quality control initiatives in Japan and known as the Father of Quality Control Effort in Japan.
• Authored many books of SPC in Japanese and in English (many received prizes and awards)
• Developed the popular tool “Cause and Effect Diagram” (also known as Fish-bone diagram
(or) Ishikawa Diagram) to find the root causes of quality problems
• Developed the concept of Quality Circles, a bottom-up approach and demonstrated first in a
Japanese company and later adopted in numerous companies across the globe.

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Dr. GENICHI TAGUCHI

Born in Tokamachi, studied at Kiryu Technological College, Navigation

Institute of Imperial Japanese Navy, Kyushu University

Worked with Ministry Public Health and Welfare, Institute of Statistical

Mathematics, Japan, Electrical Communications Laboratory of Nippan
Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Worked as a visiting professor at Indian Statistical Institute and worked

with C.R.Rao and Shewart in India

Honors:
Recipient of Deming Prize, Willard F. Rockwell Medal
Honorary member of the Japanese Society of Quality Control
Honorary member of ASQ and ASME
Automotive Hall of Fame Inductee
Recipient of Indigo Ribbon from the Emperor of Japan

Dr. GENICHI TAGUCHI - CONTRIBUTIONS

• Introduced the Taguchi Loss Function, used to measure financial loss to society resulting from
poor quality

• Introduced Robust Design, the philosophy of off-line quality control, designing products and
processes so that they are insensitive ("robust") to parameters outside the design engineer's
control.
The off-line quality into three stages:
i. System design
ii. Parameter design
iii. Tolerance design
• Introduced the innovations in the statistical design of experiments, notably the use of an outer
array (orthogonal arrays which he learnt from the inventor, Dr.C.R. Rao during his visits to the
ISI, Calcutta) for factors that are uncontrollable in real life, but are systematically varied in
the experiment.

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MASAAKI IMAI

Japanese, born in Tokyo in 1930 and graduated from the University of

Tokyo.

Founder of The Cambridge Corp., in 1962 and gave consultancy to

more than 200 foreign and joint venture companies in Japan

President of the Japan Federation of recruiting and Employment

Agency Association.

Established the Kaizen Institute to teach the Kaizen concepts to the

western world

Recipient of
Acia-Pacific Human Resource Development Award
Shingo Research and Professional Publication Prize

MASAAKI IMAI - CONTRIBUTIONS

• Brought together all the management philosophies, theories and tools into a single concept, the
Kaizen (meaning continuous improvement), a philosophy (both top-bottom and bottom-top
approach) to improve quality and productivity at minimal cost, time and effort.
• Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa and Massaki Imai jointly defined the Seven Quality Tools, namely
1. Check sheets
2. Pareto diagram
3. Histogram
4. Cause and Effect diagram
5. Flow diagram
6. Scatter diagram
7. Control Charts
• Established the Kaizen Institute (also known as Kaizen Institute Consulting Group (KICG)), offices in
more than 30 countries, to teach the concepts and implement Kaizen in those countries.
• Imai has authored the popular books titled
“Kaizen, The Key to Japans’s Competitive Success” in 1986 translated and published in 14
languages
“Gemba Kaizen, A Common sense, Low-cost Approach to Management” in 1997

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MASAAKI IMAI - CONTRIBUTIONS

Imai’s popular quotes to the companies are
“The starting point for improvement is to recognize the need.”
“Don’t wait for the perfect solution.”
“Ask ‘why?’ five times”
“When you solve one problem, you will see ten more.”
“Seek the wisdom of ten people rather than the knowledge of one.”
“Be present with your co-workers and staff.”
“Kaizen is everyday improvement, everybody improvement, everywhere improvement.”

MASAAKI IMAI – CONTRIBUTIONS

KAIZEN
• The Kaizen improvement focuses on the use of:
1. Segregating and dropping the non-value added activities from the value-added activities
2. Muda – the process of identifying and minimizing seven classes of wastes
3. The principles of motion study and motion economy, Cellular/group technology
4. Principles of material handling and uniform and unidirectional flow of materials
5. Documentation of standard operating procedure
6. Better and effective communications through visual display management
7. Five S methodology for workplace organisation
8. Poka-yoke for prevention of or detection of errors
9. JIT and Kanban system to promote lean manufacturing
10. Team dynamics for problem solving and conflict resolution

• The three guiding principles behind the Kaizen Philosophy are

1. Focus on the process, simplify the process, analyse the process
for removal of wastes, duplicating and defect generation
2. Focus on the worker comforts - To improve work ambience, safety and creativity
3. Ensure constant sense of responsibility and involvement It is everybody’s at everywhere
done every day.

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Dr. SHIGEO SHINGO

Born in Saga, Japan, graduated from Yamanashi Technical College

and become a reputed industrial engineer in Japan

Worked extensively with Taiepei Railway Factory, Japan National

Railways, Toyota Motor Company

Inventor of the three successful concepts

Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing
Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED)
Zero Quality Defects (ZQD)

Recipient of Yellow Ribbon Medal

Dr. SHIGEO SHINGO - CONTRIBUTIONS

• Introduced Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) Concept
where change over (that is, from one product model to another) is required often and such change
over takes lot of time, SMED principles can be effectively implemented to increase the productivity
to have minimal lot sizes and reduced inventory.
• Just In Time (JIT) Production
The underline principle is produce only what is required, only in the quantity what is needed
and only just at the time of requirement by the customer This approach largely eliminate all the
costs associated in over production of parts and improves productivity of the organisation as a
whole.
• Zero Quality Defects (ZQD)
This ideology of eliminating the defects altogether from occurring is based on three principles
1. Quality inspection/check at the source of the process instead of routine sampling inspections –
to ensure that inputs to the process are defects free.
2. Poka-Yoke (fool mistake proof) design for all facilities and processes – let the system has no
chances to make defects.
3. Quick feedback from quality checks and self-checks.

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Dr. SHIGEO SHINGO - CONTRIBUTIONS

SMED

The technique has the following steps:

1. Segregation of the activities involved in setting of the machine for production into two types;
(a) Type 1(External) activities – the work that can be done outside the machine so that it can be
completed, in advance (before the change-over action) parallel when the machine is busy
with the production of the current job/model.
(b) Type II (Internal) activities – the work that be done only with the machine, by keeping it idle
at the time of change over
2. Resort to eliminate or simplify all Type I activities by applying industrial engineering concepts,
develop a time standard that should not exceed the minimum production cycle time
3. To the possible extent, go for automated and fool proof methodology that will minimize the time,
effort and error for doing the Type II activities
4. Plan and schedule the Type II activities at the forced idle times (like preventive, routine
maintenance, regular overhauling) of the machine/operator