The Introduction and Development of Quality Control in the Communication Equipment Industry, 1945-1955

Toshihiro WADA

doi:10.5029/jrbh1984.12.73

Toshihiro WADA

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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1996 Volume 12 Pages 73-98

DOI https://doi.org/10.5029/jrbh1984.12.73

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Published: March 15, 1996 Received: - Available on J-STAGE: June 28, 2010 Accepted: - Advance online publication: - Revised: -
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Date of correction: June 28, 2010 Reason for correction: - Correction: CITATION Details: Right : 1The television program“If Japan can,why can't we?”(produced by NBC)created quite a stir throughout the United States in1980;it treated the history of quality control in both countries and the special features of it in each country.
2I refer the reader to the following works:W.E.Deming,Out qf Crisis(MIT,Center for Advanced Engineering Study:Cambridge,Mass.,1982);Nancy R.Mann,The Key to Excellence:The Deming Philosophy (Study of Prestwick,1985);Mary Walton,Deming Management at Work(Perigee Books: New York,1991).
3See Masao Kogure,Nihon no TQC sono saiginmi to shintenkai[TQC in Japan:A reexamination and new developments](Union ofJapanese Scientists and Engineers,1988);Izumi Nonaka,“Nihon ni okeru kagakuteki kanriho no donyu to tenkai”[The introduction of the scientific control method in Japan and its evolution],sections5to7,in Terushi Hara,ed.,Kagakuteki kanriho no donyu to tenkai[The introduction of the scientific control method and its evolution](Tokyo:Showado,1990),pp.259-82;I.Nonaka,“Nihon no hinshitsu kanri no Origin:SQC no donyu(2)”[The origin of quality control in Japan:The introduction of SQC(2)],Hinshitsu kanri,March1990,pp.55-62.
4GHQ/SCAP thought highly of the role of communication services and radio broadcasting in its task of carrying out Occupation policies in Japan,so,to solve the difficulties in this area it set up the CCS in October1945,very early in its operations,and moved quickly to tackle the problems.On its staff were several people who were connected with the Bell Telephone Laboratories and who would play an important role in introducing quality control to Japanese enterprise:W.G.Magil,H.M.Sarasohn,C.Protzman,and F.Porkinghorn.
5The Ministry of Communications has,despite several reorganizations,been the ministry of public communication services in Japan ever since its beginnings.In June1949it was reorganized into the Ministry of Telecommunications,and in August1952into Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation(NTT).
6The former was established in December1945and it promoted the diffusion of quality control by highlighting it as a basic condition for industrial standardization.The latter,founded in May 1946,promoted the study and diffusion of statistical methods.The activities of these two organizations will not be directly analyzed in this paper.
7See the following articles by the author:“Introduction of Statistical Quality Control into Communication Equipment Examination in Occupied Japan,”The Keiei Kenkyu(Business Review),vol.42,no.3,1991(Society of Business Research,Osaka City University),pp.65-78;“Development of Statistical Quality Control in Communication Equipment Inspection,”Osaka Shidai ronshu,no.66,1992(Society of Economics and Business,Osaka City University),pp.53-79;and“Keiretsu and Quality Control System of Communication Equipment in Postwar Japan,”The Keiei Kenkyu(Business Review),vol.43,no.4,1992,pp.51-65.
8GHQ/SCAP,Communication Subcommittee,Transportation Division,Economic Rehabilitation Programs Committee,First Plan of Communication Reconstruction Program,15August1948,p.15.
9Ibid.,p.15.
10Agency of Industrial Science and Technology Electrical Laboratory,ed.,Denki Shikenjo saikin no junen shi[History of the last ten years of the Electrical Laboratory](1952),p.20.
11T.Wada,“Quality Control and Management of the Communication Equipment Industry during the Wartime in Japan,”The Keiei Kenkyu(Business Review),vol.45,no.1,1994,p.58.The manufacturers of vacuum tubes mentioned in this document were Toshiba,
12Ibid.,p.61.
13On31October1946GHQ's ESS put in a request to the Department of the Army in the United States to send a statistical mission to give some guidance to the Japanese government on how to do sample surveys,and in December of that year the head of the team,Stuart A.Rice,came to Japan,followed in January by W.E.Deming and other members of the staff,after which the surveys were carried out.
14Stuart A.Rice,The Need for Modernizing japan's Statistical Organization(trans.into Japanese by the Office of the Statistics Committee as Nihon no tokei soshiki no kindaika no hitsuyo,and published by Tokei-no-Tomo Sha in1949;the quotation is from p.24 of the Japanese translation.
15Ibid.
16I.Nonaka,“Nihon ni okeru kagakuteki kanriho no donyu to tenkai,”pp.260-65.Research on statistical methods in wartime Japan was carried forward by those in the fields of scientific management method and statistics,but their research was prevented from being widely disseminated by the closed nature of technology and the wartime production regime.
17The enterprises that CCS staff visited between1946and1950covered the whole range,from such large enterprises as NEC,Toshiba,and Matsushita Electric,to small businesses in the Tokyo area of from6to30employees,and their visits covered the whole of Japan.
18NEC Corporation,ed.,Zoku Nihon Denki monogatari[The NEC story,continued],p.192.
19Ibid.,194.
20See CCS keiei koza-toppu maneejimento no hoishin to soshiki[CCS management courses:Policies and organization of top management](Daiyamondo Sha,1952);M.Kogure,Nihon no TQC,pp.17-24.Those attending the two courses numbered about20people,and included top managers(headed by the presidents of enterprises belonging to the Nippon Denki Tsashin RengOkai[Japanese Electric Communication Federation]),scholars,and researchers.
21M.Kogure,Nihon no TQC,pp.18-24.
22The staff at these institutions promoted research on and the diffusion of statistical methods and quality control through collaborative efforts.The base for their activides,right from its early years,was the office of the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers.
23One of the first Japanese to receive guidance on statistical quality control from CCS staff was Eijiro Nishibori,who actively pursued the study and practice of SQC while working on the staff of the Ministry of Communications.
24This account is based on ECL,jimu hokoku[Business report]1-2(1949),p.137.
25Ibid.
26Agency of Industrial Science and Technology Electrical Laboratory,ed.,Denki Shikenjo saikin no junen shi,p.20.
27Ibid.,p.21.
28I.Nonaka,“Nihon no hinshitsu kanri no Origin,”pp.58-59.
29GHQ/SCAP,First Plan of Communication Reconstruction Program,p.2.
30Ibid.,p.3.
31Ibid.
32NTT,ed.,Denshin Denwa shi [The history of telegram and telephone operations](1960),p.680.
33The four basic points were:1)from now on any specifications produced at the Laboratory were,unlike in the past,to be given sufficient technical consideration and be complete as to contents; 2)the formation of specifications was to be regulated and a numbering system established;3)complete inspection regulations were to be prepared as quickly as possible;4)the office in charge of survey methods is to be abolished,the personnel working there are to be absorbed into the Laboratory,and the Laboratory is to begin useful activities at once.See ECL,jimu hokoku1-2,p.150.
34The recommendations contained a strong,but veiled,criticism of past contracts:“For the sake of rapid progress in the communication equipment business,both parties must conclude contracts on an equal footing,and the government side has the duty to carry out a rigid inspection of the specification standards of goods supplied,while at the same time the makers also have the duty of supplying,on their own responsibility,goods of completely good quality.”NIT,Denshin Denwa jigyo shi,vol.6(1959),p.166.
35.Nippon Denki Tsushin Rengokai,ed.,Sengo no tsushin kogyo[The postwar communication industry](1959),p.15.
36Masatoshi Sasaki,“Dendenkosha ni okeru konyu kensa ni tsuite”[On purchasing inspections in NTT],Hinshitsu kanri,vol.4,no.7,1953,p.3.
37NIT,Denshin Denwa jigyo shi,vol.3,p.682.
38Ibid.,p.686.
39Ibid.,pp.692-94.
40Koji Kobayashi,“Chiimu waaku wa seiri seiton kara”[Teamwork starts with proper arrangement and good order],Nihon noritsu,vol.9,no.4(May1950),p.61.
41Quality control was thought to be one form of scientific management,in the following sense:“In all production of goods the two aspects of their number and their quality are a matter for concern.Quality control refers to scientific management that deals with the quality of products,and by means of this scientific management method one is always aware of what the quality of the products are,one figures out the causes for a fall in quality and takes immediate measures to correct them,and one makes it possible for quality to be maintained at a certain prescribed level”(cited in K.Kobayashi,
42The Tamagawa plant would undergo several reorganizations and name changes.The following outlines the main features of the plant:Products:vacuum tubes,wireless sets,telecommunication apparatuses,sound apparatuses,standard manually operated PBXs(no radios)Number of employees:approx.2,700(17,300people at the wartime peak period)Production methods:belt-conveyor system;feudalistic manual production.
43“The start of QC in that plant goes back a long way.It had a technical tieup with Western Electric Co.originally,so because of a suggestion from them they sent an engineer in the1920s(when the first attempts were being made by Shewhart)and had him study about how to apply statistical methods towards quality,but this came to nothing,and it didn't get to the stage of introducing QC on the organization level....It's also interesting that around this time there were lots of factories with an interest in QC from before the war that took the same path.The1920s was when the U.S.itself had begun practicing it,but it wasn't until the1940s that they took it up as a management tool on the organization level.One can understand why the QC learned in the U.S.before that,came to nothing.”See Masao Kogure,“Hinshitsu kanri kojo homonki:hensen shita hinshitsu kanri soshiki-Nihon Denki Tamagawa Jigyobu”[A visit to QC shops:Changed QC organization-the NEC Tamagawa plant],Hinshitsu kanri,vol.3,no.10(October1952),p.29.
44My account of managerial practices at NEC's Tamagawa plant relies mostly on the account given in“Nihon Denki ni okeru hinshitsu kanri no jisshi ni tsuite”[On implementing QC at NEC],in Demingu sho jusho kiroku[Record of the receipt of the Deming Award],cited in M.Kogure,“Hinshitsu kanri kojo homonki,”pp.29-31.
45Ibid.,p.30.
46M.Kogure,Nihon no TQC,pp.37-43.In order to distinguish the comprehensive quality control of Japanese enterprise from the TQC of European and American enterprise,Masao Kogure understands it as meaning CWQC(company-wide quality control),a point on which I agree with Kogure.For the purposes of this paper,however,I have used TQC as it is generally understood.For an international comparison of quality control I recommend the following works:Technical Committee,ICQC'69-Tokyo (1969):Special Issue-The Features of Quality Control in Japanese Industry,Rep.Stat.appl.Res.,JUSE,16(3),pp.1-86;and K.R.Bhote,“The Japanese Are Coming and We're Ready for'Em,”35th Annual Quality Congress Transactions(ASQC,1981),pp.633and634.
47Kogure,op.cit.
48Ibid.In addition there was,in a committee system set up to strengthen the direct organization,an engineering committee,to which was attached a quality control subcommittee,and its job was to aim at smoothing liaison relating to technology,inspection,and quality control among the various shops.
49“Nihon Denki Tamagawa Jigyobu o tazunete”[Visiting NEC's Tamagawa plant],JIS,vol.6,no.4(April1953),p.157.
50NEC,ed.,Nihon Denki monogatari[The NEC story](1980),p.195.
51.Ibid.,p.197.

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