Abstract
In this article, some factors, which might be affected to the establishment of the Taguchi method, are studied by following footsteps of Dr. Taguchi. Three factors are raised and studied; the industrial education in his schooldays, the CCS industrial management at occupied Japan, and the exploratory data analysis (EDA) and the notion of abduction which would be met during his stay in the US. As a result, following findings are obtained. (1) The possibility that he had acquired basic knowledge of the scientific management and the cost accounting by the industrial education is quite high. (2) It seems that contents of the CCS industrial management are brought to Dr. Taguchi by Mr. Kayano, his supervisor at the Electrical Communication Laboratories. Some concepts which were taught there might be seeds of distinctive characters of the Taguchi method. (3) The Taguchi method can be considered as a method based on pragmatism. In particular, it has characteristics of an inference by abduction and the instrumentalism. In such understanding, the SN ratio can be interpreted as the scale of usefulness.
