Philip Bayard "Phil" Crosby, (June 18, 1926 – August 18, 2001) was a businessman and author who contributed to management, theory and advocated quality in many different ways.  Crosby initiated the Zero Defects program at the Martin Company. As the quality control manager of the Pershing missile program, Crosby was credited with a 25 percent reduction in the overall rejection rate and a 30 percent reduction in scrap costs.

  William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant. Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical physics, he helped develop the sampling techniques still used today by the U.S. Department of Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In his book, The New Economics for Industry, Government, and Education, Deming championed the work of Walter Shewhart who used techniques such as: statistical process control, operational definitions, and what Deming called the "Shewhart Cycle" which would later evolve into the PDCA and PDSA cycles we know today.  
 

  Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962), was an author who published as R. A. Fisher, he was also a very accomplished English statistician and biologist. Fisher used mathematics to combine Mendelian genetics and natural selection, which ultimately helped to create the new Darwinist synthesis of evolution known as the modern evolutionary synthesis. He was also a prominent eugenicist in the early part of his life.  Mr. Fisher worked at Rothamsted Research for 14 years beginning in 1919.  It was here where he developed the analysis of variance (ANOVA) which is still used today in six sigma to analyse immense amounts of data.  In Fisher's case it was used to analyse crop experiments.  Later, Mr. Fisher established a reputation as a biostatistician. 

  In 1935 The Design of Experiments was published.  The book was written by the English statistician Ronald Fisher about design of experiments and is considered a foundational work in experimental design.  Among other contributions, the book introduced the concept of the null hypothesis in the context of the lady tasting tea experiment.  Mr. Fisher died in July of 1962 after leaving a powerful legacy full of influence on the world of statistics and six sigma.

Reference:  Wikipedia - Ronald Fisher 

  **Please feel free to leave your comments below with any contributions you might have regarding Mr. Ronald Fisher's impact on statistics and six sigma.

  Born in 1909 Shigeo Shingo would become one of the most influential figures in lean manufacturing.  After graduating from Yamanashi technical college Dr. Shingo went to work for the Taipei Railway Company.  Shortly after he was transferred to a manufacturing plant in Yokohama by the name of Amano Manufacturing.  Dr. Shingo immediately went to work improving production by 100%.  
  
  In about 1955 Dr. Shingo went to work for Toyota.  It was there that he developed the system we know today as SMED and Error Proofing.  Legend has it that Dr. Shingo was able to reduce the set-up time of a 1,000 ton press from 4 hours to a mere 3 minutes.  All throughout Dr. Shingo's life he travelled the world giving talks and performing remarkable consulting projects.  Dr. Shingo has written more than 10 books and countless cited papers used in the manufacturing world.  After many years of hard work Utah State University created an award known today as the Shingo prize which is given for the remarkable performance of manufacturers.  

  Everyday all around the world legends are born.  Gurus and Legends are forged in the blink of a moment, often from publicity alone.  The fact is you don't have to write a book to be considered a Lean or Six Sigma.  In fact a guru is defined as an influential teacher or a popular expert by many.  With that said each of us have a list of Gurus in the Lean and Six Sigma world that we look up to.  Many of them teaching us skills day in and day out without ever asking for recognition.  
  On this page you can submit those gurus to be featured on the Masters of Lean Six Sigma page.  Simply fill out the form below and submit your biography to the community.

  Dr. Feigenbaum was an American quality control guru who specialized in Total Quality Control.  Dr. Feigenbaum received his PH.D. in economics from MIT and shortly after was named the director of manufacturing operations at General Electric before moving on to become President and CEO of General Systems Company which was located in Pittsfield Massachusetts.  Feigenbaum wrote several books on the topic of Quality Management including:  Total Quality Control and The Power of Management Innovation.
  Dr. Feigenbaum was best known for his contributions in quality, some of which included:

• "Total quality control is an effective system for integrating the quality development, quality maintenance, and quality improvement efforts of the various groups in an organization so as to enable production and service at the most economical levels which allow full customer satisfaction."
• The concept of a hidden factory which is the idea that so extra work is performed in correcting mistakes which we may not see right away.
• Accountability for quality: Because quality is everybody's job, it may become nobody's job.  This is the idea that quality must be actively managed and have visibility at the highest levels of management.
• The concept of quality costs.

Reference: Wikipedia: Armand V. Feigenbaum

  Noriaki Kano is a professor and consultant who specializes in quality management.  Mr. Kano is most noted for the phenomenal tool that he developed known as the Kano Model.  The Kano model is a customer satisfaction model which places customer preferences into five categories:

1. Must-be Quality
2. One-Dimensional Quality
3. Attractive Quality
4. Indifferent Quality
5. Reverse Quality

    In the late 1970s and early 1980s Kano and his coworkers established the foundation for a new approach in customer satisfaction. Kano challenged the conventional beliefs that improving each attribute of a company's product or service would lead to increased customer satisfaction. Kano believed that not all attributes of product or service performance were equal in the eyes of the customer.  He believed that some attributes created higher levels of customer loyalty than others.  He addressed this topic in one of his well known books entitled:  Guide to TQM in Service Industries.  Another well known book by Mr. Kano is:  Continuous Improvement: Quality Control Circles in Japanese Industry.

Ref:  Wikipedia - Noriaki Kano 

   In 1945 many quality associations began forming around the world.  The benefits and passion surrounding quality and industrial activities were gaining momentum.  Almost 40 years earlier Romania would see the face of one Joseph Juran.  As one of six children Mr. Juran grew up with two sisters who shared his passion for learning.  Juran would live first in Romania and then in Humorului for only a short time before his family would settle in Minneapolis.  Here Juran would earn his High School degree from Minneapolis South High School in 1920.

  Shortly after his graduation from the University of Minnesota Mr. Juran went to work for Bell Labs in the complaint department.  It was at this time that Mr. Juran was selected to receive training in a program that Bell Laboratories was involved in.  The program used statistical techniques to monitor and improve quality in the organization.  In 1928 Juran's efforts earned him the titled of department chief.  One year later Juran's talents and phenomenal performance would be rewarded again as he moved up in the organization.   In 1941, Juran stumbled across the work of Vilfredo Pareto and began to apply the Pareto principle to quality issues (for example, 80% of a problem is caused by 20% of the causes). This is also known as "the vital few and the trivial many". In later years, Juran preferred "the vital few and the useful many" to signal the remaining 80% of the causes should not be totally ignored.
  In time Dr. Juran would be invited to to Japan by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers to teach the principles of quality management as the economy recovered from World War 2.  Along with his colleague W. Edwards Deming, Juran would receive the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure award from the Emperor Hirohito of Japan.  Dr. Juran later published the lectures he gave in japan in a book entitled: The Managerial Breakthrough.  In 1979 Dr. Juran founded the Juran Institute which is still actively alive today.  

Reference: The Juran Institute, Wikipedia and ASQ.