ABSTRACT
This chapter describes why and how Fuji Xerox introduced Total Quality Control in 1976, and four years later was able to go through a rigorous exercise for which it received the Deming Prize. There is no business without problems; the difficulty is to recognize the problems for what they really are, not for what we think they are. Fuji Xerox was established in 1962 as a 50/50 joint venture between Fuji Photo Film and Rank Xerox, a subsidiary of the Xerox Corporation. The company had originally been formed as a marketing company with license for both manufacturing/engineering and marketing. In 1975 Fuji Xerox was facing internal strife together with a dismal market performance. Overall marketing and business performance improved: fewer and fewer sales were lost to the competition, and revenue started to grow. The work required for competing for the Deming Prize was coordinated by an ad hoc committee.
