Dodge Challenger Forums - Do you know why we lost the quality to Japan?

I had put up a post on American Loyalty to cars and discussions and quality in American cars has been brought up.

The U.S. back in the day is to blame why Japan products increased in quality. We had the expert in our land teaching Total Quality Control and Total Quality Managment (TQC & TQM) which I am sure many of you with manufacturing back ground have heard of this acronyms. Nobody would listen at the time and so he went to Japan and the rest is history.

I felt for history sake, you should know who he was since all of his teachings are used around the world today.

In the quality world, the Deming Award is highly prized. Back in the 80's one of the Hewlett-Packard division's won such a prize.

Who is Dr. W. Edwards Deming?

Dr. W. Edwards Deming is known as the father of the Japanese post-war industrial revival and was regarded by many as the leading quality guru in the United States. He passed on in 1993.

The late Dr. W. E. Deming (1900 - 1993), one of the foremost experts of quality control in the United States, was invited to Japan by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) in July 1950.

Upon his visit, Dr. Deming lectured day after day his, "Eight-Day Course on Quality Control," at the Auditorium of the Japan Medical Association in Kanda-Surugadai, Tokyo. This was followed by Dr. Deming's "One-Day Course on Quality Control for Top Management," held in Hakone. Through these seminars, Dr. Deming taught the basics of statistical quality control plainly and thoroughly to executives, managers, engineers, and researchers of the Japanese industries. His teachings made a deep impression on the participants' mind and provided great impetus to quality control in Japan, which was in its infancy.

Total Quality Control (TQC) that had been developed in Japan as discussed above was re-imported to the United States in the 1980s and contributed to the revitalization of its industries. While the term TQC had been used in Japan, it was translated as TQM in western nations. To follow an internationally-accepted practice, Japan changed the name from TQC to TQM.

Trained as a statistician, his expertise was used during World War II to assist the United States in its effort to improve the quality of war materials.

He was invited to Japan at the end of World War II by Japanese industrial leaders and engineers. They asked Dr. Deming how long it would take to shift the perception of the world from the existing paradigm that Japan produced cheap, shoddy imitations to one of producing innovative quality products.

The late Dr. W. Edwards Deming with R. Spencer Darling, while assisting at one of Demings seminars
Dr. Deming told the group that if they would follow his directions, they could achieve the desired outcome in five years. Few of the leaders believed him. But they were ashamed to say so and would be embarrassed if they failed to follow his suggestions.
As Dr. Deming told it, "They surprised me and did it in four years."

He was invited back to Japan time after time where he became a revered counselor. For his efforts he was awarded the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure by the former Emperor Hirohito.

Japanese scientists and engineers named the famed Deming Prize after him. It is bestowed on organizations that apply and achieve stringent quality-performance criteria.

Deming's business philosophy is summarized in his famous "14 Points," listed below. These points have inspired significant changes among a number of leading US companies striving to compete in the world's increasingly competitive environment.

But the 14 Points pose a challenge for many firms to figure out how to apply them in a meaningful way that will result in continual improvement. Leadership Institute has developed powerful processes for coaching executive teams, and eventually their entire organizations, to begin accomplishing what Deming ref