Remember Dr. Genichi Taguchi, Creator of Taguchi Method

This is a very sad news to inform you that Dr. Genichi Taguchi (Honorary Member of JSQC, ASQ and IAQ), who was a great pioneer in the application of DOE for quality improvement, passed away on June 2nd, 2012. He was 88 years old (1924 - 2012). Noriaki Kano, Honorary Chairperson of ANQ, informed us that we lost the great star on 7 June 2012. All quality communities (included ANQ, ISQM, KSQM, ISQ, HKSQ, VQAH, QPSP, SQI, IAQMA, CSQ, CAQ, SQAT, etc.) expressed their hearty condolences to Dr. Taguchi's family, friends and colleagues.

Remembering, HKSQ ex-chairmen met Dr. Genichi Taguchi in the 16th Asia Quality Symposium (16AQS), which was held in Tokyo on November 15th and 16th, 2002. They attended Taguchi's tutorial on "Quality Engineering as a Strategy for Research & Development". The 16ASQ was the first step towards the establishment of the Asian Network for Quality (ANQ). Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) was one of the regional organizations represented on the Programme Committee of the event.

(From left: Dr. K.S. Chin, Dr. Genichi Taguchi, Dr. Albert Tsang and Dr. Aaron Tong)

My first Martial Arts Novel named Quality Alchemist – ISO scroll (in Chinese) published in 2006. It introduced different quality gurus and their principles in terms of Ku Fung (e.g. Taguchi's Quality Loss Function, Signal to Noise Ratio and Design of Experiment). The Quality Gurus included Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Joseph Juran, Philip Crosby, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, Shigeo Shingo, Yoshio Kondo and Dr. Genichi Taguchi, etc. Moreover, It was presented in HKU Quality Management Student Forum on 13 April 2011 and my topic named "Sharing the Quality Principles in Martial Arts Novel".

It is a great loss in the quality world. On behalf of HKSQ, we extend deep and heartfelt sympathy to Dr. Taguchi and his family. I sure Dr. Taguchi will live in the heart of every quality professional.

Reference:
Genichi Taguchi from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genichi_Taguchi
16th Asia Quality Symposium at Tokyo - http://www.hksq.org/introe.htm#e3
Quality Guru changed the world (ASQ) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/02/quality-guru-changed-world.html
Three Quality Gurus have long life - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2008/03/three-quality-gurus-have-long-life.html