The 2010 Newsletter from Dr. Noriaki Kano

I received this newsletter today from the most influential mentor in my professional journey. It is a delightful read.

January, 2011
Newsletter: Looking Back on 2010
Noriaki Kano
Impressed and Then Flattened
I got on the train from Taoyuan City in one evening to attend a meeting to be held in Taipei. Although the train was not packed because it was going reverse to the general flow of traffic, there was no vacant seat and I held onto the strap, when a high school girl got up abruptly and offered her seat to me. It was my first experience, and her pure attitude and consideration impressed me. At the same time, feeling that I was not so old as to be offered a seat, my pride was shattered completely and flattened me. Nevertheless, I accepted her warmth and took the seat while lamenting over my age, 70, which is probably an age at which there is a gap between how one thinks of onself and how one is regarded by others.
When I told this experience to some friends in Taiwan, they said offering of seats by the young to the old is nothing unusual in Taiwan. In Japan, I witness sometimes high school or university boys and girls remain seated while a mother holding a baby in one arm is standing and holding onto a strap with another.
Red Shirt Tumult
I was expected to drop by in Taipei on the way back from my business trip to Bangkok in mid-March, in order to join the wedding party of Mingli Shiu, who was once a visiting researcher of my university research group. Having been extremely busy before leaving Tokyo, I had no time to prepare clothes for the wedding, and so I asked a Taiwanese friend over phone after arrival at Bangkok what the differences are between wedding in Japan and there. He taught me two things:
— I should wear a red tie and shirt (white color is for funerals).
— Numbers should be even.
So I inquired at the hotel reception.
Kano: Where can I buy a red shirt?
Answer came back with a very surprised face,
Receptionist: What!? Are you going to join the demonstration?
Kano: No kidding! I need one to attend a wedding party in Taipei.
Receptionist: Then, you can find one in a nearby department store.
When I asked where I could find the counter for red shirts at a department store, the girl at the information desk showed a perplexed face again. I went to where the counter was, only to find that all the red shirts had been deliberately removed. I could not find any crimson shirt, but found and bought a blackish red one finally.
While ‘red shirts’ did not mean anything special a week before, a demonstration had started a few days before my arrival by Thaksin’s supporters wearing the uniform of red shirts, hence called ‘Red Shirt Fraction’.
‘Even numbers’ refer to amounts of money presents. When I asked if even numbers mean 2000, 4000, or 6000 NT, etc. the answer was that, if one wants to present around 3000NT, one can make it 3200NT. I realized, for the first time, that the tacit agreement that money presents should be in the round number without fraction and amount like 3200 NT is not agreeable is applicable only to the Japanese culture.
Note: NT: New Taiwan Dollars, 1 NT=around 3 yen
Temperature at 48 ℃ in Sahara Desert !
I dared to go to Egypt with my wife and our second son for a week in August, being prepared to take the intense heat, at my son’s convenience. We visited several sightseeing spots of the ruins of Ancient Egypt along with the Nile including the Temple Abu Simbel in Aswan which was moved at the lakeside to prevent from being submerged by the creation of Aswan High Dam and the King’s Valley in the suburbs of Luxor, located in the east end of Sahara Desert, but we, during this trip, did not visit Alexandria area where many Greco-Roman ruins still remain, expecting to keep it for the next visit
Purpose of Clothes: Outside temperature was 48℃. We had the first-hand experience that, where outside temperature is higher than the body temperature, the key to overcome the heat is to wear long sleeves to cover skin as much as possible and protect it from the air. For people living in temperate zone like Tokyo, it is believed that clothes are worn to protect from cold, and when it is hot one can wear light clothes. I realized, however, that, the purpose of clothes is heat insulation, and clothes are effective for protecting bodies from both cold and hot. This means that the same principle applies in explaining both caravan crossing desert covering their bodies with thick cloth from head to toe and Eskimo in Alaska wrapping their bodies with fur. It was a big discovery for me, and made me jump with excitement like a primary school pupil.
What Kind of Evolution Took Place during more than Two Thousand Years after the Age of Pyramid? We visited ruins of ancient dynasty on the either side of the Nile as we
cruised in a boat from upstream Aswan to Luxor. The tour guide explained that pyramids appeared suddenly nearly 5,000 years ago. It takes reasonable level of technology and work organization to build such a huge structure making use of floods of the Nile, and should have required very long years to accumulate the know-how. There should have been innovative technological development, including emergence of ironware as well as changes in the organizational culture, during two-thousand several hundred years from the days of pyramids until the country was conquered by the Expedition of Alexander the Great. We could not, however, find clear remnants of the evolution during a week-long travel. My impression was that the evolution during this period was much slower compared to the abrupt emergence of pyramids.
Cleanup Operation of Kotta River
Although I was engaged intently in the operation in the first half of the year as in past years, I stopped completely after the latter half of September because of frequent overseas business trips and preparation for lectures in Japan, only to resume in December. I was prepared to find huge amount of rubbish on the surface of the river, but contrary to my anticipation, only a little rubbish and refuse were found on the river surface and banks. I gathered that the volume of rubbish was worth not nearly 3 months but just about half a month. Somebody might have begun cleaning operation. If so, it makes me feel relieved that I do not have to take up full responsibility any more.
Walking upstream, you find about 20cm deep dead leaves covering the concrete blocks sticking out from the river. Usually plastic bags and other rubbish are mixed in the dead leaves, and yet, I found hardly any rubbish when I removed them. It was the first sight I saw since I started the Cleanup Operation of Kotta River five years ago.
Evaluation of River Cleanliness: Generally, one can guess the cleanliness of a river by looking at how much rubbish is tangled in reed, tall grass like pampas grass, and trees beside the river, besides the transparency of the water. When the water level rises due to heavy rain, rubbish scattered on the banks and in the river is pushed by the roily water, part of which gets caught by the grass and tree branches, and is left behind when the water level goes down. When viewed from this point, Kotta River is a clean one which has no problem in terms of its transparency, thanks to the well-developed sewerage system, and yet, quite a lot of rubbish used to be found on tall pampas on the banks and reed in the river, until half a year or so ago. And now, amount of the rubbish found drastically reduced, if not disappeared totally.
Lack of rubbish found among dead leaves on the blocks or hanging from grass cannot be simply explained by the presence of someone else cleaning the area besides me. It
should be natural to think that some change is occurring in the people living in the area who used to throw rubbish into the river. It is such a pleasant sign. While picking up rubbish in excitement, my heart sank again as I found kitchen garbage in plastic bags and a used bicycle thrown into the river. Human beings are so hard to deal with, and Kotta River is its epitome!
Travels
According to the summation of my secretary, the total number of overseas travels I made, including private tours, in 2010 was 14, covering the total of 181 days, i.e. smaller in the number of trips but around 30 days more than the last year. This means that the average number of days involved per trip was larger. It is because, as a result of retiring from the position of auditor of Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd, the board of directors meeting I attend on the monthly basis is only that of Komatsu, Ltd. and more days are now available for each business trip. The countries I visited this year were eleven over four continents of Asia, Africa, Europe and North America: Taiwan, China, Thailand, Bhutan, India, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Denmark, Finland, the UK, and the US. Of these countries, I visited Bhutan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates for the first time. The cumulative total number of countries and regions I visited so far is 59, the number of travels I made is 285, and the total number of days I spent in travels is 3,358 (9.2 years).
Although most of my time overseas was spent for conferences, lectures, consultancy for companies, etc. I enjoyed visiting, making use of my free time, the Flower Exposition in Taipei; Shanghai Exposition; Stone Forest near Kunming, Yunnan Province of China; Bhutan and Jaipur and Ajanta in India; as well as Manchester in the UK.
Travels I made in Japan was nine times in total, of which there was only one private trip, which I made by driving to Hakone and Mt. Fuji at the beginning of March accompanying my friend from the US, while all the others were business trips to Kyoto and Nagoya. The weather was cloudy when we started driving to Mt. Fuji, but as we came close there, the sky cleared up, probably because all of us had behaved well. We had a wonderful view of the mountain, and that was the most beautiful Mt. Fuji in all the trips I have ever made there.
Manchester—Positive and Negative Aspects of Industrial Revolution: An only object remnant of the days of industrial revolution in its birthplace, Manchester, which I observed within one-day stay, was canals. I learned for the first time, from the exhibition of the Museum of Science and Industry opened using the old railway station building of those days, that, as the revolution progressed, aggravating water and air
pollution, as well as propagation of infectious diseases, troubled the people tremendously, and it took close to 100 years to overcome these problems by implementing various measures including the construction of sewerage system. Although what I learned about the industrial revolution in my high school days was only the bright aspect, this trip taught me that there was also the negative one behind the glorious achievement, which gave me a shock.
When pollution was highlighted as a serious social issue in Japan from the 1960s to 1970s, it was considered to be a unique problem of the country, and yet, the UK was the first to experience it well before! Today, environmental pollution is becoming a serious problem in many newly industrializing countries including China and India in the middle of rapid economic growth. It is an inevitable and universal aspect of industrialization, which is indeed an example of ‘history repeats’ as Arnold J. Toynbee says.
Dubai: It was in the middle of Ramadan when I visited Dubai at the invitation of Hamadan Bin Mohammed e-University. My understanding about Ramadan before my visit was that it is a very strict and painstaking religious practice which involves prohibition of intake of any food or even a drop of water in the heat of the day for nearly a month. My visit there not only confirmed my understanding but also shed light on a different aspect.
Ramadan with Majilis: Each of the two members of the King’s family, who are high officials of the government, invited me to an evening and a night dinners, respectively, called Majilis. This was a kind of open house, where more than 100 guests were invited in each case. The party consisted of Part I and Part II. In Part I, chairs were arranged in a U shape in a large hall, and as guests arrived one after another, they greeted the head of the family, who sat in the middle, before they took seats. Many of the guests, who seemed to be acquainted, had a pleasant talk with each other. Part II started in about an hour, when the guests moved to the dining room where several rows of tables were arranged. On the tables were many types of gorgeous food arranged on large dishes (of course, no alcoholic drinks were served.) Guests, who sat on the either side of the tables, took food on their own plates and ate. The Part II was short, lasting for less than half an hour. I learned that the food left would be served to the poor people in the local community.
They told me that this is entirely an unofficial gathering which any one may join, held every night during Ramadan and which head of the family never skips. I was told that his son would substitute him when the head cannot be present, and it is a very informal and unofficial forum of communication. Both hosts, who receive many guests every
night, and guests have to be quite tough to be fit to this situation.
Comparison to Japanese New Year Culture: I remembered, as I was a child, that my father came home drunk after making the rounds of New Year’s visits to his superiors, and that I heard people say that wives of those high-ranking people who received many guests had a hard time entertaining them. Although this habit has almost disappeared in my generation, there was a Japanese cultural virtue called ‘Giri’ — the sense of obligation — behind this social practice. I wonder if the Bedouin society has a value similar to the Japanese ‘Giri’.
Japanese style communication is often referred to as ‘Nomunication’ (‘nomu’, meaning drinking in Japanese + communication). Could I, then, call communication in the Gulf States, where Dubai belongs, ‘Majilinication’ (Majilis + communication)? When read in Japanese style, this sounds ‘majirinikehshon’ (‘majiri’, sounds the meaning ‘to mix’ in Japanese+ communication), which very well carries the meaning. This has become my favorite play of words. Incidentally, I named communication in Finland ‘Saunucation’ (sauna + communication).
Despite my anticipation that Ramadan, being a very strict religious practice, would help dieting for Moslems, the gorgeous dishes served at Majilis and the way how guests appreciated them made me worry about their weight, as this is repeated every night throughout Ramadan period, although it is nothing for me to worry.
Secrets of Economic Prosperity: I heard news about ranking in terms of international cargo handling volume in a lecture meeting recently. Dubai was reported to have made a rapid progress and become the third in 2009, only after Hong Kong and Inchon. Narita, which maintained the top position until the mid-90s, has fallen behind Dubai to become the 4th. Although Dubai is in the middle of hot desert, there are green forests here and there. I heard that these plants are watered by using desalinated sea water, that while oil is produced in Abu Dhabi, which is adjacent to Dubai, not a single drop of oil is produced in Dubai, and that while population there exceeds one million, 75% of them are migrant workers from abroad. I wonder how such a rapid economic growth was possible: although Dubai is adjacent to oil-producing Abu Dhabi and faces the sea, it may not be favored with good conditions from the traditional viewpoint of trade city locations.
Until around the mid-20th century, rich countries were synonymous with resource-rich ones, which included Argentina, Australia, South Africa, Canada and the US. And so were countries in Europe which had those resource-rich countries as their colonies. Then, the US built a new business model of mass production and succeeded in industrialization and achieved growth surpassing resource-rich countries. Next,
Japan, a resource-poor country, joined rich nations by means of leveraging well-educated, high-standard workforce, which was followed by Taiwan, Korea and other Asian countries. Dubai, on the other hand, has very little resources including water and lack in workforce. What was the key to the success of the economic growth for the country in so harsh conditions? Could one conclude that the growth was enabled by the policy of inviting foreign investment based on the incentive of ‘complete tax exemption’? The same may apply to Shenzhen, China as well. The four-day three-night trip to Dubai was a very interesting one, suggesting me a major clue in considering a key to the economic growth in the globalized environment of the 21st century.
Bhutan, a Country of GNH: Bhutan is a very unique, small country situated in the Himalayas, engaged in the national development with the idea of GNH, or Gross National Happiness, under the leadership of its young King. Not a single beggar or a falling house was found during my stay of three days. Tibetan Buddhism seems to be deep rooted in the people’s life, and temples with a dozen or more of Mani wheels were sporadically found. It left the impression of being a clean, pure and religious country.
Kano Home Party
This year, as in years before, we held four parties at home, inviting close to 100 people in total, of international courses of the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship and the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers. Based on my contention that we should ‘hold party when the house becomes messy,’ parties help us to maintain 5S (‘Seiri,’ ‘Seiton,’ ‘Seiso,’ ‘Seiketsu’ and ‘Shitsuke’, good housekeeping) conditions. Typically in our party, we dance the standard item, Tanko-bushi（Coal Mine Song） together with our guests. I start by showing how to dance by calling out ‘hotte, hotte, mata hotte…’ When I say it in English, i.e. ‘Dig, Dig, again Dig…’ I make mistakes, so I say in Japanese, ‘hotte, hotte…’ Probably because the most of our guests are young, they usually join me in the circle of dancing. Such a body language is very effective in breaking the ice in international groups, making people loosen up after the dance.
A Japanese guest who attended a party recently startled me by asking how come we do not receive complaints from our neighbors for the noise created by many people dancing and singing. This question reminded me that we were complained once before when we were chatting loudly with our guests by a neighbor living in the house on the south side, soon after we had moved into the house 30 years ago. Some twenty years ago, when this neighbor moved and a three-storied construction company building was built on the land, source of our concern was removed, because the building was
uninhabited during the night (although the building shut the sunshine out, and we had to rebuild our house.) I realized that because houses next door other than in the south are all separated from ours by some kind of spatial buffer, such as a six-meter wide road and a canal six meter wide, the sound of which mitigates the noise of our parties, we have been kept from receiving complaints. It is needless to say that we take care not to let noise leak during parties by keeping all the double windows locked.
Neighborhood Community
It is thirty years since we moved into the present place. I realized after retirement that there is only one person I know in the community, i.e. owner of a near-by liquor shop. It cannot be helped because I have been working all my life, leaving all community matters to Akiko. In addition, while there were mainly ordinary houses in the area, there emerged many apartment buildings because of the convenience of proximity to a railway station. Since the turnover of occupants is high in those apartments, I can hardly recognize their faces. So, I volunteered to serve as a group leader of the community residents’ association, which is a role rotated among residents and your turn comes once every ten years or so, and did my best in attending executive meetings held several times a year. Thanks to this, ties of personal relationships are being formed, which I intend to value and nurture.
External Evaluation about Quality Assurance at Toyota
The major focus of mass media in the world almost every day in early 2010 was the quality issue of Toyota cars. When I read a newspaper article in which Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, was quoted as saying that his company would review its quality assurance system and have the result be assessed by external experts, it did not occur to me that the role would be assigned to me. Four people were involved in the assessment: Prof. Hiroshi Osada, Tokyo Institute of Technology; Mr. Yasuo Kusakabe, who is an expert of automotive technology; Ms. Yoshiko Miura, representing consumers; and I myself. We were devoted to the work by spending substantial amount of time over the two months of April and May. Although I cannot mention the outcome of assessment here because I have obligation to keep confidentiality, our report: “Findings by Independent Experts about Quality Assurance at Toyota”, presented to Toyota Motor Corporation is uploaded to the following URL of the company and accessible. Generosity of the company to make the report public is appreciated. Please refer to
the report in the below if you are interested in.
[in Japanese]
http://www2.toyota.co.jp/jp/news/10/07/nt10 0708.html
[in English]
[Overview: http://www2.toyota.co.jp.en/news/10/07/0712html
[Main text in pdf]: http://www2.toyota.co.jp/en/news/10/07/0712b.pdf
External Board Member, Komatsu, Ltd.
Business fared well from June 2008, when I was appointed to be an external board director, until September in all aspects. Economic environment, however, drastically changed after October of that year because of influence by the Lehman Shock. Two years since then have been very difficult ones, and it is only from the latter half of 2010 that I feel the season has changed and spring has returned at last.
Lectures and Presentations
The number of lectures I gave in 2010 is 50 in total, of which 15 were in Japanese, 31 in English and 4 in Chinese, which means, on the average, I gave one lecture around every week.
Commemoration of 60th Anniversary of the Deming Prize: Of all the lectures, the one in which I poured the greatest energy was the one at the conference held in November in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Deming Prize. The theme of my talk was ‘Management and TQM — Utilization of the Deming Application Prize’. I started talking about ‘Change of Times around ‘Made in Japan’, went on to discuss that the key to the success of TQM is ‘Management and TQM’ instead of ‘TQM and Management’, positioned TQM as a management package for total efforts of the organization, presented the characteristics of the Deming Prize as compared with the Malcolm Baldrige Award and the model of impact the Deming prize gave to the manufacturing industry in Japan, and concluded by recommending to utilize the Deming Prize as a catalyst for management toward business excellence.
The conference was opened with a greeting by Dr. Tetsuichi Asaka, Professor Emeritus of Tokyo University who turned 96 this year, followed by a talk by Dr. Shoichiro Toyoda, Honorary Chairman of Toyota Motor, before my talk.
There were many distinguished guests including Mr. Shoichiro Kobayashi, who was the president of Kansai Electric Power Co., Ltd. when the company was awarded the Deming Prize in 1984, which made me a little nervous. According to a hearing conducted by the secretariat after the conference, my lecture was favorably accepted, which made me feel relieved for having fulfilled an important task.
Incidentally, I retired from the Deming Application Prize Sub-Committee in the end
of December, in accordance with its internal rule which specifies the retirement age of 70. Thirty-three years of my engagement in examination for the Deming Application Prize and diagnosis gave me an immeasurable experience.
Keynote Speech at The 8th ANQ Congress, New Delhi: I made efforts in giving the keynote speech in the 8th Congress of the Asian Network for Quality held in New Delhi in October. The title of my talk was ‘Eight Suggestions for Asian Quality towards 2020’.
The congress, hosted by ISQ (Indian Society for Quality) and QCI (Quality Council of India), and co-sponsored by ANQ members in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal, was held in the JIIT (Jaypee Institute of Information Technology) in New Delhi. Close to 800 people participated from 19 countries and more than 230 papers were presented. ANQ was started in 2002 with the membership of 10 countries, which has increased now to 17. Operation of the society based on the principle of the ‘ANQ Way — Austerity and Simple Living’ by many volunteers gave very favorable impression. Needless to say, there has been superb leadership and considerate coordinatorship of leaders of quality management circle in India, represented by:
Dr. V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman of Organizing Committee;
Mr. Janak Mehta, Co-chairman of Organizing Committee; and
Mr. N. Ramanathan, Chairman of Conference Committee.
Generally, presentations made at conferences held during the early stage of introduction of quality management tend to be composed mainly of ‘theoretical presentations’, in which sentences are written in the present tense, and as implementation progresses on the shop floor, ‘implementation reports’ written mainly in the past tense increase. Typically, implementation reports at an early stage tend to be enumeration of what has been done, mentioning ‘we did this’ and ‘we did that’, more like diaries of elementary school children. On the other hand, where TQM is implemented in earnest with the leadership of the top management, presentations change to ‘story-type implementation report’ composed of data and logics. While ‘theoretical presentations’ and ‘elementary school children’s diary type presentations’ occupied the majority of presentations when the conference was held for the first time eight years ago, there was increase in ‘story-type implementation reports’ this time, which shows apparent progress in activities quality-wise. It pleases me greatly as a founding member of ANQ.
I concluded my talk with the following words:
‘By around 2020, Asia will take the leadership in the world in quality. I believe that the ANQ Congress will be the most distinguished conference on quality, and
attendance at this conference will be indispensable for professors, professionals, executives, managers, engineers and young researchers who are involved in quality management for obtaining the most up-to-date knowledge and learn from the best practices.’
Honors
Establishment of Ishikawa-Kano Award, ANQ, Asia: In the above ANQ Congress, establishment of the Ishikawa-Kano Award was announced and its first awarding ceremony was held.
Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa as the Father of Asian Quality: Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, my teacher/mentor, guided many people in Asia in many different occasions, starting with the Quality Control Symposium sponsored by the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and the present Japan Productivity Center (JPC) in 1964, where he gave a special lecture and served as a discussion leader, and then through seminars held by the Overseas Technical Cooperation Agency (OTCA, present JICA: Japan International Cooperation Agency), Japan Standards Association (JSA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS). In addition, he visited many countries to sow the seeds of quality management through seminars and lectures. Starting with his first visit in 1970 to Taiwan, he visited Korea, China, Iran, Thailand, Malaysia and India so far as I know. His contribution was outstanding indeed as the father of quality management in Asia.
Role of Noriaki Kano in Asian Quality Development: The Award named after Dr. Ishikawa’s name as well as mine was established, because I was the one who cultivated buds which sprouted from the seeds Dr. Ishikawa had sewn. True enough, starting his visit to Taiwan in 1970, I accompanied him for trips to Iran, Thailand and Malaysia, and then took over his work while receiving advice from him. I have been taken up with traveling around in Asian countries and engaged in training and education programs in Japan for Asian participants mentioned above for forty years. I feel very much honored for having been recognized for my work as well as for opening of the award with the names of Dr. Ishikawa and me.
Prof. Yoji Akao as the First Recipient of Ishikawa-Kano Award: The first Ishikawa-Kano Award was conferred to Prof. Yoji Akao recognizing his contribution to Asia through his work of establishing and deploying QFD. Prof. Yoji Akao is one of the pioneers of quality management whom I respect most, and I am truly honored by his acceptance of the award.
Distinguished Service Medal, ASQ, U.S.: I was granted the Distinguished Service Medal at the American Society of Quality (ASQ) Congress held in St. Louis in May. The medal is said to be “the highest ASQ medal awarded for service, in recognition of lifetime contributions to ASQ and the quality movement” and I feel greatly honored to receive this medal.
Kano Quality Award, TPA, Thailand: Four companies received the Kano Quality Award established by the TPA (the Technological Promotion Association (Thai-Japan)), which is an organization for promotion of management technologies in Thailand, for recognizing excellent companies promoting TQM. Presentations were made before the awarding ceremony. It is very reassuring to know that their levels are improving year after year.
Honorary Members: The fact that I was given the title of honorary member from both the Japanese Society for Quality Control (JSQC) and the Quality Society of Argentina (FUNDECE) makes me feel honored.
[Contact]
Noriaki Kano, Professor Emeritus of Tokyo University of Science,
Secretary: Yoko Oyama,
Kano Quality Research Office (KQRO), Tel: 090-6043-2299, Fax: 042-371-2800