WILLIAM EDWARDS DEMING

a. Biography
William Edwards Deming was born
in Sioux City (Iowa), a small town in the
Middle
West.
His
senior
year's
mathematics teacher at high school
encouraged him to go to university, in
spite of his parents' slender resources.
Eventually he received a PhD in 1928 at
the Yale University, in the field of
Theoretical Physics.
Among many jobs that were
offered to him after university, Deming
chose to carry out laboratory research in
the Department of Agriculture. He
worked there for ten years, on the
development of nitrate fertilizers. At the
time, the yields in agriculture had made
big progress thanks to a new science,
modern Statistics. In addition Deming
used to give lectures of Statistics at the institute founded by the Department
of Agriculture for training agricultural engineers.
In 1939, Deming joined the Bureau of the Census in Washington. His
knowledge of Statistics was helpful in the development of a new kind of
survey, based on sampling. The statistical techniques of the Census were
adopted worldwide. In 1946 he retired from the Administration and became
consultant in Statistical Studies and Professor of Statistics at New York
University.
During the Second World War, Deming stayed in Washington and used
his knowledge for the service of the arms industry. Jointly with his friend
Walter A. Shewhart, a statistician, a member of the technical staff of the Bell
Telephone Laboratories, he organized management seminars at the Stanford
University with the aim of improving productivity and the quality of military
equipment. This project was the outcome of studies they had been making
together since 1938. Their conclusions were radically opposed to the Taylor's
management principles. Several thousands of engineers and managers from
arm factories made the trip to Stanford and attended the seminars. The
project had a limited impact because the senior executives did not commit
themselves. Productivity did not improve; quality did not improve; but Japan
was defeated.

In 1947, Deming was sent to Tokyo as advisor to Allied Forces

Headquarters on the application of his sampling techniques. His stay gave
him the opportunity of meeting some Japanese managers who had good
relations with the Keidanren, the large employer's union. They were
interested in his management theories which they heard about before the
war. They invited him to give lectures and seminars in Japan. Having learnt
from his experience in Stanford, he accepted under the condition that
general managers attend his lectures. The first lecture was held in July 1950.
The Japanese industry adopted the Deming management theories
immediately and ten years later Japanese products started to flood into
America. The American consumers made no mistake: they were better and
cheaper. It's a turning point in world history.
Until 1980, Deming's theories had been prohibited in American
companies because their leaders had remained unquestioning followers of
Taylor's management principles. But an American journalist, Clare CrawfordMason, made Deming known by the general public thanks to a TV program
called "If Japan can, why can't we?. The American CEO's could not ignore
him anymore. At the request of many senior managers, Deming started to
give four day seminars open to the public where he explained his ideas in
front of several hundred people. From 1981 to 1993, he gave 250 seminars.
It has been stated that 120.000 people attended these seminars, an amazing
number! He also gave many lectures in American companies which had
adopted his management philosophy. Under his influence, the management
style has profoundly changed for a few years in the United States, even if
much progress has still to be done.
The Deming's teaching deals with management, not only with quality.
Contrary to a generally accepted idea, his goal was not to improve the
present style of management by adding a new component, but to transform
management practices from top to bottom. The primitive meaning of the
verb "manage" is "put a house in order and let the occupants live together in
harmony". In a company, according to Deming, managing means having the
processes under control, coordinating the operations and preparing the
future. He said that management does not concern only production and
service companies but also public administration and education. Since his
first seminars in Japan, many universities have been teaching management
as a science. The Deming Prize is the highest award that a company can
obtain for its excellence in management.
In English speaking countries, most people are well aware of
management practices, even in small companies. On the contrary many
people in Latin countries restrict management to supervision. It is fortunate

that French people adopted the English word some decades ago, because
some words they had used previously were misleading.
Deming says that the prevailing style of management leads the
worldwide economy to a dead end, because the emphasis put on competition
and leadership by money causes huge financial losses, poverty and
unemployment. The style of management he recommends stresses
knowledge, which he considers the most important resource a company has.
He promotes the idea that companies should develop knowledge in a climate
of cooperation. This is the goal of the famous Deming's 14 Points.
Finally it is important to see that the Deming's style of management is
extremely favorable to social cohesion. Violence is part and parcel of the
traditional style of management. Psychologists know that violence on the job
- even if it is just symbolic - brings about behavioral problems in everyday
life. Incidentally, the Deming's style of management contributes to improving
human relations in society by softening the climate of violence and fear that
is raging in companies.
Many personalities from all over the world attended his funeral in
Washington, December 1993. The Japanese association which founded the
Deming Prize, the JUSE, published a report of the ceremony, in January 1994,
in a special issue of its magazine Societas Qualitatis.

b.Contributions
Deming opined that by embracing certain principles of the
management, organizations can improve the quality of the product and
concurrently reduce costs. Reduction of costs would include the reduction
of waste production, reducing staff attrition and litigation while
simultaneously increasing customer loyalty. The key, in Demings opinion,
was to practice constant improvement, and to imagine the manufacturing
process as a seamless whole, rather than as a system made up of
incongruent parts.
In the 1970s, some of Deming's Japanese proponents summarized
his philosophy in a two-part comparison:
1. Organizations should focus primarily on quality, which is defined by
the equation Quality = Results of Work Efforts / Total Costs. When
this occurs, quality improves, and costs plummet, over time.
2. When organizations' focus is primarily on costs, the costs will rise,
but over time the quality drops.

b.1 The Deming Cycle

Also known as the Shewhart Cycle, the Deming Cycle, often
called the PDCA, was a result of the need to link the manufacture of
products with the needs of the consumer along with focusing
departmental resources in a collegial effort to meet those needs.
1. Plan: Design a consumer research methodology which will
inform business process components.
2. Do: Implement the plan to measure its performance.
3. Check: Check the measurements and report the findings to the
decision makers
4. Act/Adjust: Draw a conclusion on the changes that need to be
made and implement them.

b.2. The 14 Points for Management

Demings other chief contribution came in the form of his 14
Points for Management, which consists of a set of guidelines for
managers looking to transform business effectiveness.
1. Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product
and service
2. Follow a new philosophy
3. Discontinue dependence on mass inspection
4. Cease the practices of awarding business on price tags.
5. Strive always to improve the production and service of the
organization
6. Introduce new and modern methods of on-the-job training
7. Device modern methods of supervision
8. Let go of fear
9. Destroy barriers among the staff areas.
10.
Dispose of the numerical goals created for the
workforce.
11.
Eradicate
work standards
and numerical
quotas
12.
Abolish
the
barriers
that burden the
workers

13.
Device a vigorous education and training program
14.
Cultivate top management that will strive toward
these goals

b.3. The 7 Deadly Diseases for Management

The 7 Deadly Diseases for Management defined by Deming are
the most serious and fatal barriers that managements face, in
attempting
to
increase
effectiveness
and
institute
continual improvement.
1. The inadequacy of the
constancy of purpose
factor,
to
plan
a
product or service.
2. Organizations
giving
importance to short
term profits.
3. Employing
personal
review
systems
to
evaluate performance,
merit
ratings,
and
annual
reviews
for
employees.
4. Constant Job Hopping
5. Use of visible figures
only for management,
with little or no consideration of figures that are unknown
or unknowable.
6. An overload of Medical Costs
7. Excessive costs of liability.

PHILIP B. CROSBY
a. Biography
Crosby was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1926. He served in the
Navy during World War II and again during the Korean War. In between, he
earned a degree from the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine.
His first job in the field of quality was that of test technician in the
quality department at Crosley Corporation in Richmond, Indiana beginning in
1952. He left for a better-paying position as reliability engineer at Bendix
Corporation in Mishawaka, Indiana in 1955, working on the RIM-8 Talos

missile. He left after less than two years to become senior quality engineer at
The Martin Company's new Orlando, Florida organization to develop the
Pershing missile. There he developed the Zero Defects concept. He
eventually rose to become department head before leaving for ITT
Corporation in 1965 to become director of quality.
In 1979, Crosby started the management consulting company Philip
Crosby Associates, Inc. This consulting group provided educational courses in
quality management both at their headquarters in Winter Park, Florida, and
at eight foreign locations. Also in 1979, Crosby published his first business
book, Quality Is Free. This book would become popular at the time because
of the crisis in North American quality. During the late 1970s and into the
1980s, North American manufacturers were losing market share to Japanese
products largely due to the superior quality of the Japanese goods.
His belief was that an organization that establishes good quality
management principles will see savings returns that more than pay for the
cost of the quality system: "quality is free". It is less expensive to do it right
the first time than to pay for rework and repairs.
He died on August 18, 2001 at the age of 75 due to acute respiratory
failure. His remains is located at Palm Cemetery in Winter Park, Florida.

b.Contributions
Crosby's principle, Doing It Right the First Time, was his answer
to the quality crisis. He defined quality as full and perfect conformance
to the customers' requirements. The essence of his philosophy is
expressed in what he called the Absolutes of Quality Management and
the Basic Elements of Improvement.

b.1. The Absolutes of Quality Management

Crosby defined Four Absolutes of Quality Management, which
are:
1. The First Absolute: The definition of quality is conformance
to requirements
2. The Next Absolute: The system of quality is prevention
3. The Third Absolute: The performance standard is zero
defects
4. The Final Absolute: The measurement of quality is the price
of non-conformance

b.2. Zero Defects

Crosby's Zero Defects is a performance method and standard
that states that people should commit themselves to closely
monitoring details and avoid errors. By doing this, they move
closer to the zero defects goal. According to Crosby, zero
defects was not just a manufacturing principle, but was an allpervading philosophy that ought to influence every decision that
we make. Managerial notions of defects being unacceptable and
everyone doing things right the first time are reinforced.

b.3. The Fourteen Steps to Quality Improvement

1. Make it clear that management is committed to quality for the
long term.
2. Form cross-departmental quality teams.
3. Identify where current and potential problems exist.
4. Assess the cost of quality and explain how it is used as a
management tool.
5. Improve the quality awareness and personal commitment of
all employees.
6. Take immediate action to correct problems identified.
7. Establish a zero defect program.
8. Train supervisors to carry out their responsibilities in the
quality program.
9. Hold a Zero Defects Day to ensure all employees are aware
there is a new direction.
10. Encourage individuals and teams to establish both
personal and team improvements.
11. Encourage employees to tell management about obstacles
they face in trying to meet quality goals.
12. Recognize employees who participate.
13. Implement quality controls to promote continual
communication.
14. Repeat everything to illustrate that quality improvement is
a never-ending process.

b.4. The Quality Vaccine

Crosby explained that this vaccination was the medicine for

organizations to prevent poor quality.
1. Integrity: Quality must be taken seriously throughout the
entire organization, from the highest levels to the lowest.
The company's future will be judged by the quality it
delivers.
2. Systems: The right measures and systems are necessary
for quality costs, performance, education, improvement,
review, and customer satisfaction.
3. Communication: Communication is a very important
factor in an organization. It is required to communicate the
specifications,
requirements
and
improvement
opportunities of the organization. Listening to customers
and operatives intently and incorporating feedback will
give the organization an edge over the competition.
4. Operations: a culture of improvement should be the norm
in any organization, and the process should be solid.
5. Policies: policies that are implemented should be
consistent and clear throughout the organization.

JOSEPH M. JURAN

a. Biography

Joseph Moses Juran 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

brother of Academy Award winner Nathan H. Juran.
Juran was born in Brila, Romania, one of the six children born to a
Jewish couple, Jakob and Gitel Juran; they later lived in Gura Humorului. He
had three sisters: Rebecca (nicknamed Betty), Minerva, who earned a
doctoral degree and had a career in education, and Charlotte. He had two
brothers: Nathan
H.
Juran and
Rudolph, known as Rudy. Rudy
founded a municipal bond company.
In 1912, he emigrated to America
with
his
family,
settling
in Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
Juran
excelled
in
school,
especially
in mathematics.
He
was
a chess champion
at
an
early
age and dominated chess at Western
Electric.
Juran
graduated
from
Minneapolis South High School in
1920.
In 1924, with a bachelor's
degree in electrical engineering from
the University of Minnesota, Juran
joined Western Electric's Hawthorne
Works.
His
first
job
was troubleshooting in the Complaint
Department.
In
1925, Bell
Labs proposed that Hawthorne Works
personnel be trained in its newly developed statistical sampling and control
chart techniques. Juran was chosen to join the Inspection Statistical
Department, a small group of engineers charged with applying and
disseminating Bell Labs' statistical quality control innovations. This highly
visible position fueled Juran's rapid ascent in the organization and the course
of his later career.
In 1926, he married Sadie Shapiro. Joseph and Sadie met in 1924 when
his sister Betty moved to Chicago and he and Sadie met her on the train; in
his autobiography he wrote of meeting Sadie "There and then I was smitten
and have remained so ever since". They were engaged in 1925 on Joseph's

21st birthday. 15 months later they were married. They had been married for
nearly 82 years when he died in 2008.
Joseph and Sadie raised four children (3 sons and 1 daughter) Robert,
Sylvia, Charles, and Donald. Robert was an award-winning newspaper editor,
and Sylvia earned a doctorate in Russian literature.
Juran was promoted to department chief in 1928, and the following
year became a division chief. He published his first quality-related article in
Mechanical Engineering in 1935. In 1937, he moved to Western
Electric/AT&T's headquarters in New York City, where he held the position of
Chief Industrial Engineer.
As a hedge against the uncertainties of the Great Depression, he
enrolled in Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1931. He graduated in
1935 and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1936, though he never practiced
law.
During the Second World War, through an arrangement with his
employer, Juran served in the Lend-Lease Administration and Foreign
Economic Administration. Just before war's end, he resigned from Western
Electric, and his government post, intending to become a freelance
consultant.
He soon joined the faculty of New York University as an adjunct
professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering, where he taught
courses in quality control and ran round table seminars for executives. He
also worked through a small management consulting firm on projects for
Gilette, Hamilton Watch Company and Borg-Warner. After the firm's owner's
sudden death, Juran began his own independent practice, from which he
made a comfortable living until his retirement in the late 1990s. His early
clients included the now defunct Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Company, the
Koppers Company, the International Latex Company, Bausch & Lomb and
General Foods.
The end of World War II compelled Japan to change its focus from
becoming a military power to becoming an economic one. Despite Japan's
ability to compete on price, its consumer goods manufacturers suffered from
a long-established reputation of poor quality. The first edition of Juran's
Quality Control Handbook in 1951 attracted the attention of the Japanese
Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), which invited him to Japan in 1952.
When he finally arrived in Japan in 1954, Juran met with ten manufacturing
companies, notably Showa Denko, Nippon Kgaku, Noritake, and Takeda
Pharmaceutical Company. He also lectured at Hakone, Waseda University,

saka, and Kyasan. During his life, he made ten visits to Japan, the last in
1990.
Working independently of W. Edwards Deming (who focused on the use
of statistical process control), Juranwho focused on managing for quality
went to Japan and started courses (1954) in quality management. The
training started with top and middle management. The idea that top and
middle management needed training had found resistance in the United
States. For Japan, it would take some 20 years for the training to pay off. In
the 1970s, Japanese products began to be seen as the leaders in quality. This
sparked a crisis in the United States due to quality issues in the 1980s.
He started to write his memoirs at 92, which were published two
months before he celebrated his 99th birthday. He gave two interviews at 94
and 97.
In 2004, he turned 100 years old and was awarded an honorary
doctorate from Lule University of Technology in Sweden. A special event
was held in May to mark his 100th birthday.
He and Sadie celebrated their 81st wedding anniversary in June 2007.
They were both at the age of 102 at the time of the event. Juran died of a
stroke on 28 February 2008, at the age of 103 in Rye, New York. He was
active on his 103rd birthday and was caring for himself and Sadie who was in
poor health when he died. Sadie died on 2 December 2008, at the age of 103
years. They were survived by their four children, nine grandchildren and ten
great-grandchildren. Juran left a book that was 37% complete, which he
began at age 98.

b.Contributions
The primary focus of every business, during Juran's time, was the
quality of the end product, which is what Deming stressed upon. Juran
shifted track to focus instead on the human dimension of quality
management. He laid emphasis on the importance of educating and
training managers. For Juran, the root cause of quality issues was the
resistance to change, and human relations problems.

b.1. Pareto principle

In 1941, Juran stumbled across the work of Vilfredo Pareto and

began to apply the Pareto principle to quality issues (for example,
80% of a problem is caused by 20% of the causes). This is also
known as "the vital few and the trivial many". In later years, Juran
preferred "the vital few and the useful many" to signal the
remaining 80% of the causes should not be totally ignored.

b.2. The Juran Quality Trilogy

One of the first to write about the cost of poor quality, Juran
developed an approach for cross-functional management that
comprises three legislative processes:
1. Quality Planning: this is a process that involves creating
awareness of the necessity to improve, setting certain
goals and planning ways to reach those goals. This process
has its roots in the management's commitment to planned
change that requires trained and qualified staff.
2. Quality Control: this is a process to develop the methods
to test the products for their quality. Deviation from the
standard will require change and improvement.
3. Quality Improvement: this is a process that involves the
constant drive to perfection. Quality improvements need to
be continuously introduced. Problems must be diagnosed
to the root causes to develop solutions. The Management
must analyze the processes and the systems and report
back with recognition and praise when things are done
right.

b.3. Three Steps to Progress

Juran also introduced the Three Basic Steps to Progress,
which, in his opinion, companies must implement if they are to
achieve high quality.
1. Accomplish improvements that are structured on a
regular basis with commitment and a sense of
urgency.
2. Build an extensive training program.
3. Cultivate commitment and leadership at the higher
echelons of management.

b.4. Ten Steps to Quality

Juran devised ten steps for organizations to follow to attain

better quality.
1. Establish awareness for the need to improve and the
opportunities for improvement.
2. Set goals for improvement.
3. Organize to meet the goals that have been set.
4. Provide training.
5. Implement projects aimed at solving problems.
6. Report progress.
7. Give recognition.
8. Communicate results.
9. Keep score.
10.
Maintain momentum by building improvement
into the company's regular systems.

KAORU ISHIKAWA
a. Biography

Kaoru Ishikawa was a Japanese organizational theorist, Professor at the

Faculty of Engineering at The University of Tokyo, noted for his quality
management innovations. He is considered a key figure in the development
of quality initiatives in Japan, particularly the quality circle. He is best known
outside Japan for the Ishikawa or cause and effect diagram (also known as
fishbone diagram) often used in the analysis of industrial processes.
Born in Tokyo, the oldest of the
eight sons of Ichiro Ishikawa. In 1939
he graduated University of Tokyo with
an engineering degree in applied
chemistry. After graduating from the
University of Tokyo he worked as a
naval technical officer from 19391941. Between 1941-1947, Ishikawa
worked at the Nissan 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 in
1978.
In 1949, Ishikawa joined the
Japanese Union of Scientists and
Engineers
(JUSE)
quality control
research group. After World War II
Japan
looked
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 and Joseph M. Juran into the Japanese system.
After becoming a full professor in the Faculty of Engineering 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 was translated into English). 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 root causes.
At Ishikawa's 1989 death, 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.

b.

Contributions
b.1. The Ishikawa Diagram

Ishikawa showed the importance of the Ishikawa Diagram and the

seven quality tools: control chart, run chart, histogram, scatter diagram,
Pareto chart, and flowchart. Additionally, Ishikawa explored the concept of
quality circles-- a Japanese philosophy which he drew from obscurity into
worldwide acceptance. .Ishikawa believed in the importance of support and
leadership from top level management. He continually urged top level
executives to take quality control courses, knowing that without the support
of the management, these programs would ultimately fail. He stressed that it
would take firm commitment from the entire hierarchy of employees to reach
the company's potential for success. Another area of quality improvement
that Ishikawa emphasized is quality throughout a product's life cycle -- not
just during production. Although he believed strongly in creating standards,
he felt that standards were like continuous quality improvement programs -they too should be constantly evaluated and changed. Standards are not the
ultimate source of decision making; customer satisfaction is. He wanted
managers to consistently meet consumer needs; from these needs, all other
decisions should stem. Besides his own developments, Ishikawa drew and
expounded on principles from other quality gurus, including those of one

man in particular: W. Edwards Deming, creator of the Plan-Do-Check-Act

model.

ARMAND FEIGENBAUM

a. Biography
Feigenbaum received a bachelor's
degree from Union College, his master's
degree from the MIT Sloan School of
Management, and his Ph.D. in Economics
from MIT. He was Director of Manufacturing
Operations at General Electric (19581968),
and was later the President and CEO of
General Systems Company of Pittsfield,
Massachusetts, an engineering firm that
designs and installs operational systems.
Feigenbaum wrote several books and served
as President of the American Society for
Quality (19611963). On November 13, 2014, he died at the age of 92

b.Contributions
His contributions to the quality body of knowledge include:

"Total quality control is an effective system for integrating the quality

development, quality maintenance, and quality improvement efforts of
the various groups in an organization so as to enable production and
service at the most economical levels which allow full customer
satisfaction."

The concept of a "hidden" plantthe idea that so much extra work is

performed in correcting mistakes that there is effectively a hidden plant
within any factory.

Accountability for quality: Because quality is everybody's job, it may

become nobody's jobthe idea that quality must be actively managed
and have visibility at the highest levels of management.
The concept of quality costs

GENICHI TAGUCHI
a. Biography
Taguchi was born and raised in the
textile town of Tokamachi, in Niigata
prefecture. He initially studied textile
engineering at Kiryu Technical College with
the intention of entering the family kimono
business. However, with the escalation of
World War II in 1942, he was drafted into the
Astronomical Department of the Navigation Institute of the Imperial Japanese
Navy.
After the war, in 1948 he joined the Ministry of Public Health and
Welfare, where he came under the influence of eminent statistician
Matosaburo Masuyama, who kindled his interest in the design of
experiments. He also worked at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics
during this time, and supported experimental work on the production of
penicillin at Morinaga Pharmaceuticals, a Morinaga Seika company.
In 1950, he joined the Electrical Communications Laboratory (ECL) of
the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation just as statistical quality
control was beginning to become popular in Japan, under the influence of W.
Edwards Deming and the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers. ECL
was engaged in a rivalry with Bell Labs to develop cross bar and telephone
switching systems, and Taguchi spent his twelve years there in developing
methods for enhancing quality and reliability. Even at this point, he was
beginning to consult widely in Japanese industry, with Toyota being an early
adopter of his ideas.
During the 1950s, he collaborated widely and in 1954-1955 was
visiting professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, where he worked with C.

R. Rao, Ronald Fisher and Walter A. Shewhart. While working at the SQC Unit
of ISI, he was introduced to the orthogonal arrays invented by C. R. Rao - a
topic which was to be instrumental in enabling him to develop the foundation
blocks of what is now known as Taguchi methods.
On completing his doctorate at Kyushu University in 1962, he left ECL,
though he maintained a consulting relationship. In the same year he visited
Princeton University under the sponsorship of John Tukey, who arranged a
spell at Bell Labs, his old ECL rivals. In 1964 he became professor of
engineering at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo. In 1966 he began
collaboration with Yuin Wu, who later emigrated to the U.S. and, in 1980,
invited Taguchi to lecture. During his visit there, Taguchi himself financed a
return to Bell Labs, where his initial teaching had made little enduring
impact. This second visit began collaboration with Madhav Phadke and a
growing enthusiasm for his methodology in Bell Labs and elsewhere,
including Ford Motor Company, Boeing, Xerox and ITT.
Since 1982, Genichi Taguchi has been an advisor to the Japanese
Standards Institute and executive director of the American Supplier Institute,
an international consulting organization. His concepts pertaining to
experimental design, the loss function, robust design, and the reduction of
variation have influenced fields beyond product design and manufacturing,
such as sales process engineering.

b.Contributions
Taguchi has made a very influential contribution to industrial statistics.
Key elements of his quality philosophy include the following:
1. Taguchi loss function, used to measure financial loss to society
resulting from poor quality;
2. 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; and
3. Innovations in the statistical design of experiments, notably the use of
an outer array for factors that are uncontrollable in real life, but are
systematically varied in the experiment.

WALTER A. SHEWHART
a. Biography
Walter Andrew Shewhart was born
to Anton and Esta Barney Shewhart on
March 18, 1891, in New Canton, IL. Shewhart died on March 11, 1967,
in Troy Hills, NJ. He attended the University of Illinois receiving
bachelors and masters degrees. In 1914, he married Edna Hart and
moved to California where he earned his doctoral degree in physics
while studying as a Whiting Fellow at the University of California,
Berkeley, in 1917.
He had brief stints of teaching at University of Illinois, University of
California at Berkeley, and La Crosse State Teachers College (renamed
Wisconsin State University), but his academic career was short-lived.
In 1918, Shewhart joined the inspection engineering department of
the Western Electric Co. in Hawthorne, IL. Western Electric
manufactured telephone hardware for Bell Telephone Co. Although no
one could have realized it at the time, Shewhart would alter the course
of industrial history.
Shewhart was part of a group of people who were all destined to
become famous in their time. This group included Harold Dodge and
Harry Romig, known for their work on product sampling plans. George

D. Edwards, who became the first president of the American Society for
Quality Control (renamed American Society for Quality in 1997), was
Shewharts supervisor.
Shewhart mentored many during his tenure, including Joseph M.
Juran. During the summers of 1925 and 1926, W. Edwards Deming
worked as an intern at the Hawthorne, IL, plant where he became
interested in Shewharts work.

b.Contributions
The original notions of Total Quality Management and continuous
improvement trace back to a former Bell Telephone employee named Walter
Shewhart. One of W. Edwards Deming's teachers, he preached the
importance of adapting management processes to create profitable
situations for both businesses and consumers, promoting the utilization of his
own creation -- the SPC control chart.
Dr. Shewhart believed that lack of information greatly hampered the
efforts of control and management processes in a production environment. In
order to aid a manager in making scientific, efficient, economical decisions,
he developed Statistical Process Control methods. Many of the modern ideas
regarding quality owe their inspirations to Dr. Shewhart.
He also developed the Shewhart Cycle Learning and Improvement
cycle, combining both creative management thinking with statistical
analysis. This cycle contains four continuous steps: Plan, Do, Study and Act.
These steps (commonly referred to as the PDSA cycle), Shewhart believed;
ultimately lead to total quality improvement. The cycle draws its structure
from the notion that constant evaluation of management practices -- as well
as the willingness of management to adopt and disregard unsupported ideas
--are keys to the evolution of a successful enterprise.