Quality Circle Essay

380 Words2 Pages
Kaoru Ishikawa developed the concept of Quality Circles and Cause and Effect (Fishborne) Diagram. Kaoru Ishikawa was born in 1915 in Tokyo. He graduated from Tokyo University in 1939 with an engineering degree in applied chemistry. Following a short time in the military he worked for the Nissan Liquid Fuel Company from 1941 – 1947 before becoming an associate professor at the University of Tokyo. In 1978 he became president of the Musashi Institute of Technology. Ishikawa wanted to change the way people think about work. He challenged managers who were content to merely improve a product's quality, instead insisting that quality improvement can always go one step further. He promoted the concept of company wide quality control that called for continued customer service. This level of service would extend throughout the company, including all levels of management and indeed even reaching into the every day lives of those involved. According to Ishikawa the process of continuous quality improvement can ALWAYS be taken one step further. In 1960 Ishikawa, in conjunction with JUSE, developed the concept of Quality Circles, and in close association with Nippon Telephone & Telegraph, he experimented on what effect the "leading hand" could have on quality. Quality Circles soon became very popular and formed an important link to Total Quality Management systems (TQM) in over 50 countries. Ishikawa subsequently published two books on Quality Circles; QC Circle Koryo and How to Operate QC Circle Activities. Ishikawa is also credited with developing the Cause and Effect Diagram, also known as the Ishikawa Diagram or more simplistic Fishbone Diagram. With the use of this diagram the user can see all the possible causes of any given result, and hopefully identity the root process of imperfections, thusly allowing quality improvement to be driven from the "bottom

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