JSA Newsletter
52nd Quality Month
In Japan, November is designated "Quality Month" since 1960. Ever since its inception, Quality Month activities have been organized to foster greater quality awareness and wider dissemination of quality control activities.
In the Great East Japan Earthquake that took place on March 11, Japan sustained enormous damages. The regions that were hardest hit with this earthquake disaster had been key parts supply centers for Japan's leading industries, including automobile and electrical appliance manufacturing. For this reason, many businesses experienced overwhelming difficulties including recovery from damages that spread widely and across levels of their supply chains, procurement of raw materials and parts, assurance of quality and other issues.
In the 52nd Quality Month, the words "Turn Crisis into Power: Become No. 1 Again by Quality Innovation" were chosen as the theme, to express our hope that, in the face of a major crisis that allegedly occurs only once in a millennium, that the exceptional talent of the Japanese who are able to create innovation from such decrepit conditions is put into action, making the crisis the driving force of power and marking this year as the first year in our effort to regain world leadership in quality innovation.
"Quality innovation" refers not only to activities for enhancing the quality and reliability of products and services. It also includes the optimization of systems and entire supply chains that generate quality and reliability, as well as the provision of quality that is optimized to conform when markets around the globe with differing value perspectives.
Businesses in the manufacturing and related industries in Japan are making active use of Quality Month events such as special seminars aimed at recovery and advancement from the enormous damages from the Great East Japan Earthquake, as well as Quality Month items such as "Quality Month textbooks", "banners" and "badges", in order to boost greater quality awareness, taking action not only in Japan but also in their overseas operations.
Quality Month poster
* Japanese businesses make use of the Quality Month textbooks in their internal training programs in order to raise quality awareness among their employees.