In a country rebuilding from ruins, a chemist drew a fish skeleton to find out why things went wrong — and helped turn “Made in Japan” into a promise of quality.
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Ten items. Say your answer out loud before you reveal it.
Read the sentence, guess the meaning of the word in bold, then reveal.
The three words are: brainstorm · symptom · root cause. Read each meaning, say the word, then reveal.
One missing word fits every phrase in the group. Say it, then reveal.
Read each part. After it, answer the quick check from memory, then discuss one question.
Kaoru Ishikawa was born in Tokyo in 1915, into a family of engineers and business leaders. He studied chemistry at the University of Tokyo and graduated in 1939, just as the world was going to war.
According to most accounts, it was in 1943 — in the middle of the war — that Ishikawa first drew his famous diagram, while helping engineers at a Kawasaki factory understand why their products varied. (Accounts differ on whether it was a steel works or a shipyard.) Workers and managers had many different ideas about what was going wrong. Ishikawa wanted a way to put all the possible causes on one page, so that people could discuss them calmly instead of arguing.
His drawing was simple. On the right, he wrote the problem. From it, he drew a long line, like a backbone. Coming off the backbone were bigger bones for the main groups of causes — people, methods, materials, machines — and smaller bones for the details. It looked exactly like the skeleton of a fish.
1. What did Ishikawa study at university?
2. Why did he want to put all the possible causes on one page?
3. What goes at the head of the fish, and what goes on the bones?
1. Chemistry.
2. So that people could see and discuss all the causes calmly, instead of arguing.
3. The head holds the problem; the bones hold the groups of causes and their details.
When the war ended in 1945, Japan's cities lay in ruins. Industry had to be rebuilt almost from nothing. In the years that followed, Japanese goods had a poor reputation abroad: “Made in Japan” often meant cheap, and not very good.
A group called the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers decided to tackle the problem. In 1950 it invited an American statistician, W. Edwards Deming, to give lectures to Japanese engineers and company leaders. Deming told them that quality was not something you inspect at the end; it is built into every step of the process. His message was taken very seriously, and a prize for quality was named after him in 1951. Another American expert, Joseph Juran, gave lectures a few years later.
Ishikawa was one of the Japanese experts who turned these ideas into everyday practice. He believed that quality was everyone's job, not only the managers'. In 1962 he helped to launch quality circles: small groups of ordinary workers who met regularly to find and solve problems in their own work. One of their favourite tools was the fishbone diagram.
1. What did “Made in Japan” often mean after the war?
2. What was Deming's main message about quality?
3. What were quality circles?
1. Cheap and not very good.
2. Quality isn't just checked at the end — it must be built into every step of the process.
3. Small groups of ordinary workers who met regularly to find and solve problems in their own work.
By the 1970s, Japanese cars and electronics were being bought all over the world, and they were famous for being reliable. In 1980, an American television documentary asked a painful question: If Japan Can… Why Can't We? Suddenly, American companies wanted to learn Japanese methods — and the fishbone diagram travelled back across the Pacific.
Juran called it the Ishikawa diagram, and the name stuck. Today it is also called a cause-and-effect diagram, and it is used far beyond factories. Hospitals use it to understand why a mistake happened, so that it is not repeated. Airlines, software teams and schools use it too. The main groups of causes are often remembered as “the six Ms”: manpower (people), methods, machines, materials, measurement and Mother Nature (the environment).
Ishikawa died in 1989, one of the most respected figures in the history of quality. His diagram's greatest strength is also a warning: most problems have more than one cause. A fishbone helps a team stop looking for someone to blame and start looking for the root causes.
1. What question did the 1980 documentary ask?
2. Give two places where the diagram is used today, apart from factories.
3. What are the “six Ms”?
1. If Japan Can… Why Can't We? — why American industry couldn't match Japanese quality.
2. Any two: hospitals, airlines, software teams, schools.
3. Manpower (people), methods, machines, materials, measurement, Mother Nature (environment).
The problem goes at the head of the fish. The big bones are the groups of causes; you add smaller bones for each detailed cause you find. Here, a pizza shop wants to know why deliveries are late.
Here are six causes of the pizza shop's late deliveries. Which bone does each one belong on? Choose, then check.
1. Machines — equipment and tools.
2. Environment — conditions outside the shop's control.
3. People — skills and training.
4. Methods — the way the work is done — the process.
5. Materials — the ingredients and supplies.
6. Measurement — how things are measured and recorded.
It shows possible causes, not proof. A long list of bones can look scientific even when nothing has been checked.
Causes are connected. Untrained drivers get lost more in the rain — the diagram puts them on different bones.
It can get huge. Without a clear problem at the head, the fish grows until nobody can read it.
When we explain how things are made, tested or discovered, the person who does it is often less important than the action. That is when English uses the passive: be + past participle.
Write the verb in brackets in the correct passive form.
1. Every year, millions of phones (make) in this region.
2. The first diagram (draw) during the war.
3. Since 2010, the method (adopt) by hundreds of hospitals.
4. Right now, the machine (repair), so please use the other one.
5. All complaints should (report) to the manager.
1. are made
2. was drawn
3. has been adopted
4. is being repaired
5. be reported
Start with the words given. Only include by if it adds useful information.
1. Someone left the door open all night. → The door
2. Engineers test every engine twice. → Every engine
3. The famous architect Zaha Hadid designed the building. → The building
4. They are going to close the old station. → The old station
1. The door was left open all night.
2. Every engine is tested twice (by engineers is obvious — leave it out).
3. The building was designed by the famous architect Zaha Hadid (the doer is important).
4. The old station is going to be closed.
Now describe a product you use every day in the passive: where it is made, how it is tested, and how it could be improved.
Draw the fish for real problems. Choose a task, start the timer, and talk.
Choose a problem you know well — at work, home or in your city. Name at least one cause for four different bones.
Describe a problem where people keep fixing the symptom instead of the root cause. Why does that happen?
Think of a product or service with an excellent reputation. How do you think quality is built into every step?