Hi thorman,
A long, long time ago (the late 80's) Tony Bendell wrote a comparison of the philosophies and tools of the major quality gurus for the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
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Tony is an excellent writer and communicates it in layman terms, if you've not read it really is worth 10 minutes or so. In the same article he provides a further reading guide:
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I've not read any of the Taguchi books he cites although the ones written by TB are probably a lot easier to digest for a westerner and might be worth a look.
Regards,
Simon