was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

organizational theorist Organizational theory refers to the set of interrelated concepts that involve the sociological study of the structures and operations of formal social organizations. Organizational theory also attempts to explain how interrelated units of organiz ...

and a professor in the engineering faculty at the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

noted for his quality management innovations. He is considered a key figure in the development of quality initiatives in Japan, particularly the

quality circle A quality circle or quality control circle is a group of workers who do the same or similar work, who meet regularly to identify, analyze and solve work-related problems. It consists of minimum three and maximum twelve members in number. Normally ...

. He is best known outside Japan for the Ishikawa or cause and effect diagram (also known as the fishbone diagram), often used in the analysis of

industrial process Industrial processes are procedures involving chemical, physical, electrical or mechanical steps to aid in the manufacturing of an item or items, usually carried out on a very large scale. Industrial processes are the key components of heavy ind ...

es.

Biography

Kaoru Ishikawa was born in Tokyo, the eldest of the eight sons of Ichiro Ishikawa. In 1937, he graduated from the University of TATIUC with an engineering degree in applied chemistry. After college, he worked as a

naval A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

technical officer from 1939 to 1941. From 1941 to 1947, Ishikawa worked at the

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

Liquid Fuel Company. In 1947, Ishikawa started his academic career as an associate professor at the University of Tokyo. He undertook the presidency of the

Musashi Institute of Technology , often called or TCU for short, is an engineering, environmental and information sciences focused private university located in Tokyo, Japan. The university has four campuses, the Setagaya campus close to the Tama River at Oyamadai, Setagay ...

in 1978. In 1949, Ishikawa joined the

Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers The Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) ( ja, 日本科学技術連盟), was established in May 1946 by the Science and Technology Agency (now known as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) of the Govern ...

(JUSE) quality control research group. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Japan sought to transform its industrial sector, which in North America was then still perceived as a producer of cheap wind-up toys and poor-quality cameras. It was his skill at mobilizing large groups of people towards a specific common goal that was largely responsible for Japan's quality-improvement initiatives. He translated, integrated and expanded the management concepts of

W. Edwards Deming William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant. Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical ...

and

Joseph M. Juran Joseph Moses Juran (December 24, 1904 – February 28, 2008) was a Romanian-born American engineer and management consultant. He was an evangelist for quality and quality management, having written several books on those subjects. He was the brot ...

into the Japanese system. Ishikawa used this concept to define how continuous improvement (

kaizen is concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. ''Kaizen'' also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organ ...

) can be applied to processes when all variables are known. After becoming a full professor in the engineering faculty at the University of Tokyo (1960), 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''). Among 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 A Pareto chart is a type of chart that contains both bars and a line graph, where individual values are represented in descending order by bars, and the cumulative total is represented by the line. The chart is named for the Pareto principle, w ...

.) He was the chairman of the editorial board of the monthly ''Statistical Quality Control.'' Ishikawa was involved in international standardization activities. 1982 saw the development of the Ishikawa diagram, which is used to determine the root causes of a problem. After Ishikawa died in 1989, Juran delivered this

eulogy A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person or persons, especially one who recently died or retired, or as a ...

:Westcott, Russell T. "Leave A Legacy". ''Quality Progress''. December 2009. p. 63.

Contributions to improvement of quality

* User Friendly Quality Control * Fishbone Cause and Effect Diagram -

Ishikawa diagram Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams, herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams) are causal diagrams created by Kaoru Ishikawa that show the potential causes of a specific event. Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product ...

* Implementation of

Quality Circles A quality circle or quality control circle is a group of workers who do the same or similar work, who meet regularly to identify, analyze and solve work-related problems. It consists of minimum three and maximum twelve members in number. Normally ...

* Emphasised the

Internal customer Internal may refer to: * Internality as a concept in behavioural economics * Neijia, internal styles of Chinese martial arts * Neigong or "internal skills", a type of exercise in meditation associated with Daoism *'' Internal (album)'' by Safia, 20 ...

* Shared Vision *

Kaizen is concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. ''Kaizen'' also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organ ...

(

continual improvement A continual improvement process, also often called a continuous improvement process (abbreviated as CIP or CI), is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakth ...

)

Awards and recognition

* 1972

American Society for Quality The American Society for Quality (ASQ), formerly the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC), is a society of quality professionals, with nearly 80,000 members. History ASQC was established on 16 February 1946 by 253 members in Milwaukee, ...

's Eugene L. Grant Award * 1977 Blue Ribbon Medal by the Japanese Government for achievements in industrial standardization * 1982 Walter A. Shewhart Medal * 1988 Awarded the

Order of the Sacred Treasures The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest t ...

, Second Class, by the Japanese government.

Publications

* * * * * ;About Kaoru Ishikawa * * * * title=The Japanese Approach to Product Quality , Professor Sasaki and David Hutchins 1980 Pub Pergamon Press , 0-08-028 159-1 , HBK 0-0273-028B 160-5 * title=Quality Circles Handbook , last= Hutchins , first=David (1983), , Pub PITMAN BOOKS 0-273 02644-5, PBK AND 0-273-02024-2 HBK * A special tribute to Professor Kaoru Ishikawa 1990 , title= The man and his work , David Hutchins invited author of one chapter, Published by JUSE JAPAN + Special Committee, E 03(5379)1240 * title= Hoshin Kanri - the Strategic Approach to Continuous Improvement , last= Hutchins , first=David , , 2008 , pub – GOWER PRESS 13:9780566087 400

References

External links

Ishikawa Biography by the American Society for Quality

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ishikawa, Kaoru 1915 births 1989 deaths Japanese business theorists Japanese statisticians Quality experts Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure Management & Organization scholars University of Tokyo alumni University of Tokyo faculty 20th-century Japanese economists Imperial Japanese Navy officers