Kaoru Ishikawa contributions to quality management and control

Kaoru Ishikawa contributions to quality management and control

Introduction

Quality management can be defined as the process that involves an organization establishing a framework and quality policy to be followed and implemented and ensure that the activities and tasks are done in the organization meet the desired level of excellence (Deshmukh, 2018). In this report, we will look at Kaoru Ishikawa, one of the quality gurus who helped in advancing quality control and management. Therefore we are going to look at his key accomplishments, contributions, and how he influenced the whole issue of quality management and control.

Kaoru Ishikawa contributions to quality management and control

Ishikawa is regarded as the father of quality management in Japan (Kondo, 2017). He largely and actively contributed to the issues of quality management in Japan. His key accomplishments were the development of various quality management tools. These quality management tools include the following.

The Ishikawa diagram, also known as the cause-and-effect diagram. The check sheet, a generic tool used for collecting and analyzing data for quality planning. Histograms are graphical representations of frequency distributions. The Pareto chart is a bar graph used to which factors are more important in quality management. A control chart that is used by an organization to track the progress of processes done in the organization. The scatter diagram is used by organizations to understand the relationship between various variables that can affect quality. The last tool is stratification, which is a technique used to separate the multiple datasets so that patterns can be seen and understood.

Cause-and-effect diagram (Ishikawa diagram)-This is one of the most critical tools of quality management that Ishikawa developed (Deshmukh, 2018). Also known as the fishbone diagram. An example where the tool can be used is in manufacturing and product development to identify where quality control issues might arise and how they can be dealt with to attain the stipulated quality standards.

Another critical area that Kaoru Ishikawa much emphasized on is that concerning companywide quality. He believed that an organization must be focused and committed to ensuring that they achieve total quality. He, therefore, believed that all employees have a pivotal role to play, and every sector in the organization is a crucial participant when it comes to quality management. Through this, organizations have learned and seen the importance of quality audits and strategic planning to attain their set goals and objectives. Additionally, organizations have achieved ways of reducing defects, reduced costs, increased quality of production, identifying and reducing waste, among many others.

Additionally, Kaoru Ishikawa contributed to the advancing of the work done by others in the field of quality management (Kondo, 2017). Through his commitment, he further expanded the plan-Do-check-Act model that was created by Edwards Deming. Ishikawa emphasized the importance of totality and taking into consideration various factors when it comes to quality management. Therefore he expanded the model and came up with a model with six key components that ought to be looked at. The model was consequently redesigned and emphasized on the following. The first is to determine the goals and targets of quality. Secondly is laying frameworks and methods of reaching those goals. The third is engaging in education and training. The next step involves implementation. The fifth step involves looking at the loopholes on the implementation, and lastly, is taking appropriate action to handle the gaps identified.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, Kaoru Ishikawa played a crucial role and immensely contributed to quality management (Kondo, 2017). As we have seen above, he contributed to diverse issues concerning quality management. Among the key issues involves the seven quality tools, companywide quality, and quality circles. Therefore, through his work, organizations have attained efficient systems and reliable ways of doing their activities in achieving the highest standards of quality.