The Role ofArtistic Thinking as an Innovation Stimulus to Increase Quality
Abstract:
The Theory ofAttractive Quality was developed by Noriaki Kano in the mid-1980s and itdescribes a way to relate product characteristics to the customer domain. Threefunctions define this relationship and identify quality characteristics of theproduct features and functions which fulfill requirements for the customer’ssatisfaction. One of these items focuses on exceptional innovation that leadsto clear competitive advantage: attractive quality. This type of quality isrepresented by the Japanese term for quality called miryokuteki (魅力) which is an aesthetic component that isdelivered in the actual product or service. When this quality characteristic isfulfilled, it adds value to the product so that the product is noticed andperceived by customers as aichaku (愛着) or "desirable to possess,"literally "fit for love" and it describes the situation where anactual entity has been "designed to be wanted" (e.g., a that penfeels good in your hand while you are writing or a car’s atmosphere that iscalming even in stressful traffic conditions). An example of this aichakuquality is when Steve Jobs told Apple designers to make a design of the iPhonebuttons so that “people would want to eat them!” This paper describes variouscomponents of artistic thinking and the process of studio design as potentialdrivers of aichaku quality and innovation in a new product development processand thereby contributing to the development of attractive quality.
AuthorBiographies:
Gregory H. Watsonis a past-President and an Honorary Member of the International Academy forQuality (IAQ), past-President and Fellow of the American Society for Quality(ASQ), Honorary Member of twelve national quality organizations (includingFinland, Russia and the United Kingdom) and recipient of over thirty majorquality awards including: W. Edwards Deming Medal of the Union of JapaneseScientists and Engineers, the Distinguished Service Medal of the AmericanSociety for Quality, the Georges Borel Medal of the European Organization forQuality and the Gold Medal of the Finnish Association for Quality.
Andrew D. Watsonis a visual and media artist in computer graphics and photography and an arteducator in the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) district in Virginia. In2015 he was named Art Education Technology Outstanding Teacher by the NationalArt Education Association. He is Co-Chair of the National Congressional STEAMCaucus White Paper Writing Group; Founding Member of the Board of Directors ofthe National Innovation Collaborative; and member of the Teacher Advisory Boardof the National Portrait Gallery in the Smithsonian Institute. Greg was born on16 July 1948 in Englewood, New Jersey (USA) to Robert John Watson, Jr.(1914-1995) and Anne Faye (Bellotte) Watson (1917-1999). His paternal familywas Scottish and his maternal family was French and German. He lived in hishome town of Tenafly, New Jersey until he departed for university studies. Hegraduated with a bachelor of arts (cum laude) from Taylor University, aChristian liberal arts college located in Upland, Indiana. At Taylor hisliberal arts program of studies was supplemented with a minor in chemistry.Greg received a University Fellowship from American University to studyphilosophy and he lectured students in symbolic logic where his students werepredominantly computer programmers. In 1971 he volunteered to serve in the Navyand was commissioned an officer. He served in the aviation anti-submarinewarfare forces and progressed to lieutenant commander. For two years he wasseconded from the Navy to the Center for Naval Analyses where he was a memberof the professional staff of the Operations Evaluation Group, the field
representativeswho conduct the operations research and mission analysis to support navaloperations. In this role he served as director for operational test andevaluation and he wrote his first paper on quality focusing on the requirementsfor software acceptance testing. His military experience was supplemented bycompleting a graduate diploma in political economics at the Industrial Collegeof the Armed Forces, a Master of Science degree in systems engineeringmanagement from the University of Southern California, and a Master of Artsdegree in legal studies from Antioch University School of Law. In 1983 heshifted careers from the military to the commercial world and joinedHewlett-Packard. His years at HP were spent at the San Diego Division and inCorporate in both Manufacturing and Quality Offices. During his HP years he wasintroduced to Japanese quality methods as a participant on study missions toJapan and through HP’s implementation of both Just-in-Time production and TotalQuality Management. He worked in positions in R&D, manufacturingmanagement, productivity systems development and quality management. His lastposition was as the Manager of the Quality Leadership Program where heintroduced benchmarking and he designed and delivered training for divisionalquality managers. From HP, Greg was recruited to become Director of CorporateQuality at Compaq Computer. In this role he completely redesigned the qualitysystem of Compaq, introducing a precursor to the Six Sigma initiative that wasbuilt on the variant under development at Texas Instruments. He built a strongteam in the quality office and rapidly completed ISO9000 certification for allthe manufacturing and service centers in the world. He designed a new approachto benchmarking which he documented in THE BENCHMARKING WORKBOOK (ProductivityPress, 1992). Following his termination at Compaq Computer (this story is wortha book chapter or journal article, not a paragraph), Greg was offered theposition of Quality Vice President at Xerox. Just one problem – he could notstart the new job for six months. So, in the interim he served as the VicePresident of Benchmarking for the American Productivity & Quality Center.In this role he developed training courses, consulted to companies to help themcreate benchmarking efforts, designed information systems as a repository forbenchmarking studies, and solicited corporate donations to build thisnot-for-profit center. During this time he also co-edited a guidebook onpractical suggestions for benchmarking (THE BENCHMARKING MANAGEMENT GUIDE(Productivity Press, 1993). At Xerox he continued writing and developing qualitysystems built around benchmarking, policy deployment, business assessment, andstatistical problem solving. He helped Xerox to create the “Business ExcellenceModel” and “Managing for Results” – two recognized best practices of theirtime. When he became ill and could not work, he turned to writing to keephimself occupied and wrote: STRATEGIC BENCHMARKING (Wiley, 1993), A WORLD OFQUALITY – THE TIMELESS PASSPORT (Quality Press, 1994), and Business SystemsEngineering (Wiley, 1994). His book Strategic Benchmarking was selected for theFortune Magazine Book-of-the-Month Club and Library Journal rated it one of thetwelve best business books of 1993. It was translated into nine languages. Gregdeparted Xerox after this period and started a consulting company so he couldhave a less rigorous work schedule. However, his client list continued to growas broader and more strategic consulting projects came his way. He has hadlong-term assignments with Hewlett-Packard, Nokia Mobile Phones, ExxonMobil,and Toshiba. Among the clients of his boutique consulting firm he also includessuch a wide variety from well-known service multinational Ritz-Carlton Hotels,high technology company Microsoft, to small business concerns like StandardFurniture Company of Monterrey, Mexico. Paralleling his consulting has been astrong commitment to dedicated volunteer service with the American Society forQuality, International Academy for Quality and the Institute for IndustrialEngineers. During his consulting years he has continued to write books: SIXSIGMA FOR BUSINESS LEADERS (GOAL/QPC, 2004), DESIGN FOR SIX SIGMA (GOAL/QPC,2005), and STRATEGIC BENCHMARKING RELOADED WITH SIX SIGMA (Wiley, 2007). Gregcontinues to be active in research, volunteer work, consulting, and teaching. Heis adjunct professor at Oklahoma State University College of Engineering,Architecture, and Technology in the Industrial Engineering and ManagementDepartment where he teaches classes in the graduate program of EngineeringTechnology Management.
http://www.gregoryhwatson.eu/index.html