History of Quality
| 22 January 1901
 Free! Email Course Subscribe to get 52 weekly lessons. Every week you get an email that explains a quality concept, provides you with the study resources, test quizzes, tips and special discounts on our other e-learning courses. | Sir John Wolfe-Barry (the man who designed London’s Tower Bridge) instigated the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers to form a committee to consider standardizing iron and steel sections.
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| 1911
| Frederick W. Taylor published “The Principles of Scientific Management.”
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| 1924
| Walter A. Shewhart, a statistician at Bell Laboratories, developed the control charts, and principles of statistical process control.
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| 1925
| Sir Ronald Fisher published the book, Statistical Methods for Research Workers, and introduced the concept of ANOVA.
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| 1937
| Joseph Juran introduced the Pareto principle as a means of narrowing on the vital few.
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| 1940
| The acceptance sampling plan was developed by Harold F Dodge and Harry G Roming.
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| 1943
| Kaoru Ishikawa developed the cause and effect diagram (also known as fishbone diagram).
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| 1946
| The Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineering (JUSE) established.
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| 1946
| The International Organization for Standardization was founded in Geneva, Switzerland.
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| 16 February 1946
| The American Society for Quality Control (ASQC) was formed.
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| 1947
| Dr. Edwards Deming was sent to Japan to help Japanese rejuvenate their industries.
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| 1950
| Genrich Altshuller developed the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ).
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| 1951
| Deming prize instituted.
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| 1951
| Juran published the first edition of “Quality Control Handbook.”
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| 1954
| Juran’s reputation in quality management led the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers to invite him to Japan.
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| 1960
| The first “quality control circles” were formed in Japan and simple statistical methods were used for quality improvement.
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| 1960s
| The concept of Kaizen developed.
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| 1961-1964
| The concept of Poka Yoke developed by Shigeo Shingo.
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| 1966
| Dr. Yoji Akao introduced Quality Function Deployment (QFD) Methodology.
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| 1968
| Kaoru Ishikawa published the Guide to Quality Control.
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| 1969
| Dr. Shingo Shigeo, as part of JIT, pioneered the concept of Single Minute Exchange of Dies.
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| 1969
| Ishikawa emphasized the use of Seven Quality Tools.
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| 1969
| ASQC co-sponsors the first International Congress in Quality Control, hosted by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers in Tokyo.
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| 1970s
| Dr. Taguchi promoted the concept of Quality Loss Function.
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| 1977
| International Association for Quality Circles founded.
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| 1979
| BS 5750 was issued. This was later replaced with ISO 9001:1987.
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| 1979 | Philip Crosby published his book “Quality is Free.”
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| 24 June 1980
| NBC aired the television documentary “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?.
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| 1980s
| Professor Noriaki Kano developed the Kano model which classifies customer preferences into five categories: Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Be, Indifferent, Reverse.
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| 1982
| In Out of the Crisis, published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management.
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| 1986
| Six Sigma formulated by Bill Smith in Motorola.
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| 1986
| Masaaki Imai established the Kaizen Institute to help Western companies introduce Kaizen concepts, systems and tools.
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| 15 March 1987
| ISO issued the first version of the ISO 9000 series. (ISO 9001:1987)
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| 1987
| Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was established.
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| 1988
| Motorola becomes the first company to win Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award.
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| 15 September 1988
| Presidents of 14 European companies came together to create the European Foundation for Quality Management.
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| 1994
| QS9000 quality standard developed by a joint effort of the ‘Big Three’ automakers, General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford.
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| 1994
| ISO issued the second version of the ISO 9000 series. (ISO 9001:1994)
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| 1995
| General Electric (GE) launched the Six Sigma initiative.
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| 1997
| ASQC drops ‘Control’ from its name, becomes ASQ.
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| 1999
| ISO/TS 16949 1st Edition was released.
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| 2000
| ISO issued the third version of the ISO 9000 series. (ISO 9001:2000)
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| 2008
| ISO issued the fourth version of the ISO 9000 series. (ISO 9001:2008)
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| 2015
| ISO issued the fifth version of the ISO 9000 series. (ISO 9001:2015)
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