The basic reason for Japan’s supremacy in the business world is the quality of its products. To compete with Japan, it has become necessary for every country to come up with products that are as good as or better than those of the Japanese. At every step of a production process, there are areas where further improvements can take place. Striving to identify areas where further improvement is possible is the key to success in any business. Improvement must be an ongoing process and the management should never think that the organization has reached its optimum level. There is always room for greater improvement.

There are a number of gurus who pioneered in the field of quality improvement. Though it is quite difficult to mention all those pioneers, the following geniuses deserve special mention. It is because of their efforts and deep thinking that most organizations and financial enterprises have reached the level of excellence which they are presently at.

Joseph Juran - His major contributions include the ‘Juran trilogy‘ and ‘Pareto chart‘. His ideas are applicable in any environment.

Kaoru Ishikawa - He was a disciple of Edwards Deming and he put forward the idea of a circle of volunteers in an organization that constantly monitored the production process and suggested ways for improvement. The ‘Ishikawa Diagram‘ is named after him.

Peter Dewhurst and Geoffrey Boothroyd - Their theory, called ‘DFMA‘ mainly focused on the design of finished products. They believed that design affects the quality of products.

Genichi Taguchi - The ‘Taguchi methods’ tries to eliminate changes to design once the production process is already on.

Taichi Ohno - He formulated the theory of ‘Elimination of waste‘ based on the concepts of kaizen and kanban. He believed that waste must be avoided at all production stages.

W. Edwards Deming - He is considered as the most important person who helped Japan to achieve superior quality in all its products. He laid out fourteen principles to improve production processes in factories and at other work places. His principles are considered as the Bible for product improvement.

Henry Ford - He was a renowned industrialist and the company he founded is the Ford Motor Company. His theory of improvement was called ‘Short cycle time’ which later got incorporated into the theory of Lean Management.

David Garvin - He is a proponent of producing products according to the preferences of the customers. He says that good products should have some features that distinguish them from other products competing with them.

Armand V. Feigenbaum - He is the founder of the theory ‘Total Quality Control‘

Philip Crosby - His theory is ‘Zero defects‘. He emphasized that under no circumstances, defective products must be produced.

Philip Thomas - His contribution is the ‘Cycle time reduction‘. His theory tiers to improve the production process at all levels.

Shigeo Shingo - He is the founder of the theory ‘mistake proofing‘. This theory tries to eliminate defects at all production levels. This theory later became the corner stone for the concept of Total Quality Control.

Frank Gilbreth - He formulated the universally recognized theory of ‘Motion Study‘. His theory has helped organizations to achieve improvement in work methods.

Walter A. Shewhart - The father of the ‘Control Chart‘, he is considered as the pioneer in determining whether a certain production process is worthwhile to continue or not.

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