DR.

KAURO ISHIKAWA
Background
• July 13, 1915 - April 16, 1989
• Father and Pioneer of the “Quality Circles” in Japan in the 1960s
• Graduated in 1939 from the Engineering Department of Tokyo
University
• Doctorate of Engineering and was promoted as professor in 1960
• Showed the importance of the following seven quality tools
• Developed the cause and effect diagram (Ishikawa Diagram)
Background
Prizes Awarded
• The Deming Prize
• The Nihon Keizai Press Prize
• The Industrial Standardization Prize for his writings on quality control
• The Grant Award in 1971 from the American Society for Quality
Control for his education program on quality control
Importance of the following seven quality tools
• Graph
• Check Sheet
• Pareto chart
• Cause and Effect
• Scatter diagram
• Histogram
• Control chart
Ishikawa expanded Deming’s four steps into
the following six divisions

Plan-Do-Check-Act Model
Company-Wide Quality
Ishikawa built on Feigenbaum's concept of total quality and suggested
that all employees have a greater role to play. He argued that an over-
reliance on the quality professional would limit the potential for
improvement. He also maintained that a company-wide participation
was required from the top management to the frontline staff. As every
area of an organization can affect quality, all areas should study
statistical techniques and implement as required with internal and
external quality audit programs. He went on to name areas such as
engineering, design, manufacturing, sales, materials, clerical, planning,
accounting, business and personnel that can not only improve
internally but also provide the essential information to allow strategic
management decisions to be made concerning the company.
Quality Circles
Quality circle is the main ingredient of Ishikawa’s company-wide quality
control consisting typically of 5-10 personnel who meet at regular
intervals. Led by a supervisor or team leader, they aim to contribute to
and improve processes and activities, build up job satisfaction and
company loyalty, and utilize existing and hidden resource potential. As
part of membership, each member should be fully conversant with
statistical quality control techniques and related methodologies in
order to achieve quality improvement.
Ishikawa (Fishbone) Diagram
This diagram effectively identifies “cause and effect” in a brainstorming
style session that can be easily understood. The main points of
influence are the “Ms” and “Es” (manpower, machines, methods,
materials and environment).
It is often used as a team "brainstorming" tool that can trigger and ease
out important issues. It is laid out with the contributing causes
documented hierarchically with the most pressing problems being at
the spine.
Uses of Cause And Effect Diagram
• Identifying the potential causes of a problem or issue in an orderly
way. For example, why has membership in the band decreased, why is
not the phone being answered on time, why is the production
process suddenly producing so many defects?
• Summarizing major causes under four categories, e.g., people,
machines, methods and materials, or policies, procedures, people
and plant)
Benefits of the 5 Whys
• Helps identify the root cause of a problem
• Determine the relationship between different root causes of a
problem
• One of the simplest tools and is easy to complete without statistical
analysis
When are 5 whys most useful?
• When problems involve human factors or interactions
• In day-to-day business life, it can be used within or without a six
sigma project
How to complete the 5 whys?
1. Write down the specific problem. Writing the issue helps you
formalize the problem and describe it completely. It also helps a
team focus on the same problem.
2. Ask why the problem happens and write the answer down below
the problem.
3. If the answer you just provided does not identify the root cause of
the problem that you wrote down in step 1, ask why again and
write that answer down.
4. Loop back to step 3 until the team is in agreement that the
problem's root cause is identified. Again, this may take fewer or
more times than 5 Whys.
5 Whys and the Fishbone Diagram
The 5 Whys can be used individually or as a part of the fishbone (also
known as the cause and effect or Ishikawa) diagram. The fishbone
diagram helps in exploring all potential or real causes that result in a
single defect or failure. Once all inputs are established on the fishbone,
you can use the 5 Whys technique to drill down to the root causes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNDlg1h-za0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdhC4ziAhgY