Japanese companies don?t adopt SIX SIGMA / ISO - Still they are leading in Quality

[Stijloor]

Re: Japanese companies don’t adopt SIX SIGMA / ISO - Still they are leading in Qualit

A Cove discussion where I tried to give an example of how mimicking the Japanese without first understanding cultural motivations might have unexpected results.

Thank you Jim! I read them. Great posts.

Being from another country, now living in the US, and having worked with many American organizations, I can certainly relate to cultural aspects. I learned that my home country "ways" did not always fit with the American way. And vice versa. However, we have a lot in common too.

Back to your point of mimicking; the concept of "Kaizen" is an interesting one too. My Japanese clients just smile when I bring it up. But that's another story for another thread and another time.....

Stijloor.

 

[Randy]

Re: Japanese companies don’t adopt SIX SIGMA / ISO - Still they are leading in Qualit

Randy raises a great point. A "google" search on "Impact of Japanese culture on quality" yielded this. Quite fascinating.

Stijloor.

Think deeper...Japanese Fuedal culture and the cost of failure (the need for corrective action....6 Sigma, ISO, etc..)

 

[sridharafep]

Re: Japanese companies don’t adopt SIX SIGMA / ISO - Still they are leading in Qualit

The Japanese Quality....

If a shipment is one part short, the entire number of parts in that shipment is considered defective.

If Japanese will find a quality problem, they react directly. A most others/company will put all the failure products in a box, and when the box is full will the reaction come.

Suppliers are expected to react instantaneously on faults...It is frustrating and financially rewarding to work with...

• The Japanese know that you have quality problems in the beginning. For example, Play station 2 had a yield of 2% in the beginning
• What they expect you to do is to react quickly, to find the root cause, and to make sure that it will not happen again
• Use a lot of pictures in you reports. The Japanese people are not good at spoken English, but they understand a picture. Try to use color pictures as long as possible. The office in Tokyo should have standard formularies for all the quality requests
• A number should be given each request so that it could be tracked. The lead time to first answer and report should then be tracked.

SIMPLE PRACTICES...LIKE

• Quality circles
• Self directed teams
• Extensive job rotation
• Statistical process control
• Extensive on and off the job training
• Group incentive compensation
• Pay for skills
• Profit sharing
• Morning group meetings
• Suggestion system for all employees i.e. workers recommend, managers
choose
• Short set-up time
• Flexibility
• Maintenance
• Easy equipment flow layout
• Pull system in factory.....

All ABOVE VISIBLE simples (UNDERSTANDABLE TO DOWN THE LINE) PRACTICES = < > CAN TAKE US TO 3.4 DPMO (SS BANNER!)

SRIDHAR

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Re: Japanese companies don’t adopt SIX SIGMA / ISO - Still they are leading in Qualit

If we are going to reminisce, this issue has been exhaustively discussed @ the The Japanese Foundation of Quality thread. Not too long ago. Interesting that (apparently) we don't seem to have many covers from Japan.

 

[Stijloor]

Re: Japanese companies don’t adopt SIX SIGMA / ISO - Still they are leading in Qualit

Interesting that (apparently) we don't seem to have many covers from Japan.

Sidney,

Why would that be? Cultural? Is this true for other Internet Forums? There's so much to learn from each other.....

Stijloor.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Re: Japanese companies don’t adopt SIX SIGMA / ISO - Still they are leading in Qualit

Sidney,

Why would that be? Cultural?

I think the explanation is quite simple: non-english speakers have a harder time communicating outside of their native language. Since most of Covers find it via websearching and word of mouth, the Cove is not very promoted (or known) in non-English speaking communities.

 

[Stijloor]

Re: Japanese companies don’t adopt SIX SIGMA / ISO - Still they are leading in Qualit

I think the explanation is quite simple: non-english speakers have a harder time communicating outside of their native language. Since most of Covers find it via websearching and word of mouth, the Cove is not very promoted (or known) in non-English speaking communities.

Sidney,

We do have participation from people that live in non-English speaking countries. We have met many Covers from various Asian, European and South American countries.

Would Marc have some statistics where the Covers reside?

Stijloor.

 

[Marc]

Re: Japanese companies don’t adopt SIX SIGMA / ISO - Still they are leading in Qualit

I don't have anything tracking vistors by country. There was a stats hack for vBulletin that would track (as best it could) visitors by country but it was so buggy I stopped using it.

 

[sridharafep]

Re: Japanese companies don’t adopt SIX SIGMA / ISO - Still they are leading in Qualit

Any Japanese here can share some view to it - on this topic - actual Quality trend there?

Also, i request the actual sig sigma user to share their success and failures.

Sridhar

 

[Steve Prevette]

Re: Japanese companies don’t adopt SIX SIGMA / ISO - Still they are leading in Qualit

Any Japanese here can share some view to it - on this topic - actual Quality trend there?

Also, i request the actual sig sigma user to share their success and failures.

Sridhar

Akio Miura participates heavily in the ASQ discussion boards. His information posted at ASQ states:

Company Name: International QA Institute
Title: Chairman

Generally, he posts a pessimistic view of Japaness quality - that perhaps we Americans have over-romaticized the impact of quality on Japan.