ABSTRACT
Kaoru Ishikawa, who died in 1989, commenced his career as a chemist, held a doctorate in engineering and was an emeritus professor at Tokyo University. Bank (1992: 74) describes him as the ‘Father of Quality Circles’ and as a founder of the Japanese quality movement. He became involved in quality issues in 1949 through the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) and subsequently became a world-wide lecturer and consultant on quality. Gilbert (1992: 23) suggests that Ishikawa was the first guru to ‘recognise that quality improvement is too important to be left in the hands of specialists’. Ishikawa’s writings explaining his approach include the Guide to Quality Control (1986) and What Is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way (1985), which have both been translated into English. Ishikawa was widely honoured for his work, receiving the Deming, Nihon Keizai Press and Industrial Standardization prizes and the Grant Award from the American Society for Quality Control.
