Abstract
Statistical quality control was introduced in Japan by W. Edwards Deming, a statistician working for the United States War Department, in the early years of Japan’s occupation. Deming’s work on statistical quality control was largely overlooked until it quickly revolutionized Japan’s industry in the 1950’s, leading to an event commonly known as Japan’s “Post-War Economic Miracle.” Japan’s economic growth was based on the realization of Deming’s theories and the profound increase in the quality of Japan’s manufactured goods. Japan’s top corporations still maintain a reputation for high quality products.\r Once Japan began to overtake the United States, many firms attempted to adopt Japanese quality control techniques, to varying degrees of success. Culture was the most commonly cited reason for the failure of Japanese quality control in America; firms who struggled with its implementation would often give up, claiming that the work environment in America was too culturally different for these Japanese techniques to work. However, some businesses were able to make these methods work quite well for them, which would indicate that culture was not the determining factor in this situation. This has led to an argument about whether or not culture is the determining factor in the success of Japanese quality control techniques in American businesses.\r In order to investigate this phenomenon thoroughly I went to the source, examining Deming’s personal and work related documents from the time he spent in Japan and the consulting work he did in America upon his return. I also made use of ethnographies focused on the Japanese work environment, and statistical data comparing the performance of Japanese and American firms in similar industries. \r After looking at Japan’s history and cultural traditions, it was apparent that Japan’s adoption of quality control after the Second World War was a product of both cultural tradition and fortuitous circumstance. However, culture is something that we can ultimately change and control. Because of this, culture is not a impassable barrier to the adoption of quality control by American firms. But, culture does have some power, and this power can be made to either help or hinder the efficacy of Japanese techniques in in American business firms.