The Road to Quality Control

N. I. Fisher is a Visiting Professor of Statistics at the University of Sydney, a management consultant, and Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Wiley journalStat.

Y. Tanaka is a Professor Emeritus of Statistics at Okayama University and involved in quality control as a member of the teaching and consulting staff of JSA (Japan Standard Association) seminar in Osaka.

W. H. Woodall is a Professor of Statistics at Virginia Tech and a former editor of theJournal of Quality Technology (2001?2003) and Associate Editor ofTechnometrics (1987?1995).

Foreword xiii

I Introduction1

Preface 1

Step 1. Establishing the Quality Standard 3

Step 2. Establishing a Section to Evaluate Quality 5

Step 3. Establishing Inspection Standards 6

Step 4. Selection of Inspection Methods 7

Step 5. Investigation of the Current State of Quality 9

Technical Terms Used in Quality Control 11

II Probability and Statistical Inference 17

Measures of Central Tendency 21

Measure of Variability 24

III Sampling Inspection 43

Specifying an Acceptable Proportion of Defective Items 54

IV Application of Sampling Inspection 63

V Quality Control of the Production Process 75

Appendix: Statistical Tables for Sampling Inspection 95

SL Table-1.0, DL Table 5, SA Table-10.0, DA Table-1.0 (From Sampling Inspection Tables by Dodge, H.F. and Romig, H.G.)

Thoughts onThe Road to Quality Control The Industrial Application of Statistical Quality Controlby Homer M. Sarasohn 101
W. H.Woodall

Introduction 101

Quality Management 102

Use of Acceptance Sampling 104

Control Chart Methods 104

Theory vs. Practice 105

Some Other Books of the Era 106

Conclusions 106

References 107

Homer Sarasohn and American Involvement in the Evolution of Quality Management in Japan, 19451950 109
N.I. Fisher

1 Introduction 109

2 Events Prior to 1945 110

2.1 Data 110

3 19451947 111

3.1 Data 111

3.1.1 Civil Communications Section (CCS) activities 111

3.1.2 Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) 116

3.1.3 Visits to Japan byW. Edwards Deming 116

3.2 Interpretation 117

4 19481950 117

4.1 Data 117

4.1.1 CCS activities 117

4.1.2 JUSE activities 126

4.1.3 Demings activities 127

4.2 Interpretation 128

5 Conclusions 134

6 Key Sources of Information 136

Acknowledgements 136

References 137

Résumé 139

Appendix: Notes on the Text 139