A review of “Total Quality Control – the Japanese Way” by Kaoru Ishikawa

Kaoru Ishikawa was a significant figure in the development of quality in Japan. In his book Total Quality Control – The Japanese Way he describes many of the ways that Japanese businesses achieve quality. His book contains many points that are useful to testing professionals.

He wrote that the very essence of Total Quality Control is quality assurance. It must be built into each design and process[1]. He saw quality assurance as a process that has Quality Control wrapped around it. He defines quality control as: ”to practice quality control is to develop, design, produce and service a quality product which is most economical, most useful and always satisfactory to the customer”[2]. Wrapped around Quality Control is Total Quality Control which he describes as “a thought revolution in management” [3], and it begins and ends with education about quality.

Central to these processes is the Deming Cycle. Ishikawa called the Deming Cycle the Control Circle as it controls all quality control work. He renamed the parts of the Deming cycle from plan-do-study-act to plan-do-check-act. He also divided the Plan part of the cycle into determining goals and targets and determining methods of reaching the goals and divided the Do part of the cycle into engaging in education and training and implementing work. [4] See the above diagram.

Ishikawa describes the roles that Deming and Juran took in helping Japan’s economy recover after World War Two. Deming taught the use of statistics and the Deming Cycle. Juran taught about management’s role in quality. Ishikawa described Deming as “a good friend of Japan who knows Japan”.[5]

The phrase “the next process is your customer” was invented by Ishikawa. He first used the phrase when he was working for a company where, instead of working together, the departments within the company viewed each other as enemies.[6]

The cause-effect diagrams that are called Ishikawa diagrams were invented by Kaoru Ishikawa and were named by Joseph Juran.[7]

Ishikawa believed that people are good and that believing this helps achieve quality. This belief underpins the view that education is important to help people be successful in their work.[8]

He argues that we need “cone-shaped engineers” not “well-shaped engineers”. This is very similar to the argument that we need T-shaped people, and I wonder if this idea is where the idea of the need for T-shaped people comes from. [9]

We must work towards the ideal state where there are no faults in the product and inspection is not required. [10]

A Quality Circle is a small group that performs quality control activities voluntarily.[11] Ishikawa gives advice on how to organise quality circles. He says the quality circles are based on voluntarism, self-development and mutual development. The advice he gives regarding quality circles would apply equally to communities of practice.

Ishikawa believed that the discussions and mutual development that came from Japanese quality control conferences were key factors in advancing quality control in Japan [12].

There are many lessons that testing professionals can learn from the book and I would recommend reading it.

References

[1] Total Quality Control – The Japanese Way by Kaoru Ishikawa (1985, p73)

[2] Total Quality Control – The Japanese Way by Kaoru Ishikawa (1985, p44)

[3] Total Quality Control – The Japanese Way by Kaoru Ishikawa (1985, p1)

[4] Total Quality Control – The Japanese Way by Kaoru Ishikawa (1985, p59)

[5] Total Quality Control – The Japanese Way by Kaoru Ishikawa (1985, p17)

[6] Total Quality Control – The Japanese Way by Kaoru Ishikawa (1985, p107)

[7] Total Quality Control – The Japanese Way by Kaoru Ishikawa (1985, p64)

[8] Total Quality Control – The Japanese Way by Kaoru Ishikawa (1985, p66)

[9] Total Quality Control – The Japanese Way by Kaoru Ishikawa (1985, p101)

[10] Total Quality Control – The Japanese Way by Kaoru Ishikawa (1985, p167)