Abstract
This paper reports the main findings of a mission to Japan to study total quality control (TQC) best practice in manufacturing industry. The manner in which the Japanese companies manage TQC is impressive; however, there are a number of outstanding features including: their planning for improvement is second to none, from publication of the President's policy and its deployment through all levels of the organizational hierarchy and the visual display of what is required from each section of every manufacturing division in order to achieve specific improvement goals; top management are totally committed to TQC and are involved in planning, auditing improvement, motivating their people, cross-functional teams and committees, and taking a personal interest in TQC education and training; there is total dedication and attention to detail in all aspects of quality assurance and quality improvement from listening to the ‘voice of customers’ to daily control of routine activities—no effort appears to be spared by each employee in analysing the reasons for quality troubles and putting into place countermeasures to prevent their reoccurrence; and the considerable resources that are committed to training employees from President to line operator in TQC principles, procedures and tools and techniques. It is also pointed out that numerous means are used to involve employees in quality improvement activities.