The Raw Fish Theory of Quality

                    David and Sarah Kerridge


Everyone loves the quality of Japanese cars and electronic goods. 
As soon as the West noticed that it was losing business, team 
after team went to Japan to find the secret of their success. 
Discussion in the team went something like this:

     "They must be doing something we don't - what on earth is 
     it?"
     "Fancy that, they eat raw fish!"
     "That must be it! - fish is good for the brain"

So back they came to the West and told everyone to eat raw fish. 
But it never seemed to produce such good results here as it did 
in Japan: and quite a lot of people got food poisoning. Then 
another team would go out, to investigate the Tea Ceremony, or 
Sumo wrestling......

     Of course, you will say, what we did sounded  more sensible 
than that: but it came to the same thing. We had campaigns to 
introduce Quality Circles, or Just-in-Time, or Taguchi methods. 
Sometimes they did a little good, sometimes they produced the 
equivalent of food-poisoning. But copying Japanese methods never 
produced Japanese levels of quality.

     Why not? These all illustrate the danger of examples without 
theory. People who eat raw fish are healthy if the fish is very 
fresh, and hygiene is perfect. But it may be the perfect hygiene 
that is good for health, rather than the fish.

     The methods the Japanese use are not the cause of their 
success, but work because of the management philosophy that Dr 
Deming taught them. Good quality is simply one of the many 
benefits of good management. The Westerner who does not know what 
to look for cannot see it, or thinks it is just part of Japanese 
culture. But if that were true, why did Japan produce such shoddy 
goods before the Deming revolution?

     Sometimes we imagine that Western managers are resistant to 
theory: but the evidence points the other way. Western managers 
are simply not sceptical enough. Why else are "raw fish" theories 
of quality so popular? I wonder what the next one will be - Lean 
Management? Paper folding? But perhaps we did'nt give raw fish a 
fair trial. Let's go back and eat more  of it this time.