Professor Jiro Kawakita was a well-known scholar of ethnogeography in Japan. Through his fieldwork and research on the Himalayan Highlanders of Nepal, he has established a distinct methodology in field sciences and revealed the system of the people, culture, way of life and ecology. His achievements are very widely studied and some of the tools he established are still used today, the main one being the affinity diagram which is a tool used within the KJ Method and provides a structured basis for Lean Strategies International LLC’s ©CURE Methodology.
 
   The Following is a great biography borrowed from: Fukuokaprize.  Please note there are not many biographies on this pioneer, master of the Affinity diagram which is widely used in project management today.  If you have any additional information on this Master, please feel free to share, link and comment in the comments section below.  Your name will be cited with the contributions and we would be more than happy to link to a page of yours if you would like.

  

  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.
• 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.

  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

  Genichi Taguchi was an engineer and statistician who was born and raised in the textile town of Tokamachi. He initially studied textile engineering at Kiryu Technical College with the intention of entering the family kimono business. However, with the escalation of World War II in 1942, he was drafted into the Astronomical Department of the Navigation Institute of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
After the war, in 1948 Mr. Taguchi joined the Ministry of Public Health and Welfare, where he came under the influence of eminent statistician Matosaburo Masuyama. He also worked at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics during this time and supported experimental work on the production of penicillinat Morinaga Pharmaceuticals, a Morinaga Seika company.​

  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 

  Sakichi Toyoda is often referred to as the father of Japanese industrial revolution. He is also the founder of Toyota Industries Co., Ltd.  He created a variety of weaving device. The most famous invention is the automatic power loom in which he applied the principles of Jidoka (autonomous automation). Jidoka principle, which means that the machine stops itself when the problem occurs, then became part of the Toyota Production System.

Toyoda developed the concept of 5 why: When a problem occurs, ask 'why' five times to try to find the source of the problem, then put into place something to prevent these problems from recurring. This concept is used today as part of implementing lean methodologies to solve problems, improve quality and reduce costs.

Reference: Wikipedia: Sakichi Toyoda

  Bill Smith is the father of Six Sigma.  Mr. Smith was born Bill Smith worked for Motorola in the 1980's where he held positions like vice president and senior quality assurance manager.  Mr. Smith was a very accomplished engineer of 35 years before he joined with Motorola.  Driven with the spirit of perfection, Bill changed the way statistical analysis was performed.  He and Dr. Harry would eventually develop what we know today as the DMAIC methodology.   

  Dr. Mikel J. Harry received his PHD from Arizona State University in 1984.  Dr. Harry is a widely recognized name in Six Sigma.  He wrote a book entitled Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World's Top Corporations which has been on the best selling books on six sigma for many years now.  
  Along with over 50 publications on six sigma Dr. Harry's work is used in such organizations as General Electric, Ford Motor Company, Allied Signal and Motorola.  Dr. Harry is truly one of the Master's of Six Sigma and has a long list of accomplishments within the industry including:
  - Development of six sigma quality program for Motorola in 1987.
  - Winning the Malcolm Aldridge Quality award in 1987.
  - Founder of Six Sigma Academy
  - Multiple Global Business awards.
  For more information on Dr. Mikel Harry visit his biography page.