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Date Submitted: 04/01/2012 07:29 AM

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Born in Tokyo, the oldest of the eight sons of Ichiro Ishikawa. In 1939 he graduated University of Tokyo with an Engineering degree in applied chemistry. His first job was as a naval technical officer (1939-1941) then moved on to work at the Nissan Liquid Fuel Company until 1947. Ishikawa would now start his career as an associate professor at the University of Tokyo. He then undertook the Presidency of the Musashi Institute of Technology in 1978.

In 1949, Ishikawa joined the Union of Japanese Scientist and Engineers quality control research group. After World War II Japan looked to transform its industrial sector, which in North America was then still perceived as a producer of cheap wind-up toys and poor quality cameras. It was his skill at mobilizing a lot of people towards a specific common goal that was largely responsible for Japan's quality-improvement initiatives. He translated, integrated and expanded the management concepts of Dr. Deming and Dr. Juran into the Japanese system.

Ishikawa wanted to change the way people think about work. He challenged managers who were content to merely improve a product�s quality, instead insisting that quality improvement can always go one step further. He promoted the concept of companywide quality control that called for continued customer service. This level of service would extend throughout the company, including all levels of management and indeed even reaching into the everyday lives of those involved. According to Ishikawa the process of continuous quality improvement can ALWAYS be taken one step further.

Among his efforts to promote quality were, the Annual Quality Control Conference for Top Management (1963) and several books on Quality Control (the Guide to Quality Control was translated into English). He was the chairman of the editorial board of the monthly Statistical Quality Control. Ishikawa was involved in international standardization activities.