I was being interviewed by Erik Ofgang of Connecticut Magazine this morning. His questions reminded me how few recognize the contemporaneous and parallel accomplishments of Admiral Rickover, Bill Smith of Motorola and W. Edwards Deming.
My book alludes to the fact that Rickover drove industry, as well as the Navy, to better standards than anyone had ever believed possible, and then even higher. Smith did the same thing for computer chip reliability as it was the only way to gain market acceptance for small calculators. His efforts were subsequently documented in what has become known as Six Sigma.
Dr.Deming was the American electrical engineer generally credited with starting the quality revolution (Kaizen) which nearly destroyed America’s Big Three until Ford hired him to return to the US.
Fortunately for America, all three of these men were working for us all at the same time.