Dr. Ryuji Fukuda had worked at Sumitomo Electric for almost 20 years when in the mid 1970s he was asked to develop a method for effectively standardizing procedures and then continually improving them. Sumitomo executives had decided to expand into international markets and knew that competition would be intense. Fukuda began by forming a team of volunteers and asking them to identify a real problem against which his new method could be developed and tested.
They worked for a year before settling on the CEDAC approach. (CEDAC is an acronym for Cause-and-Effect Diagram with the Addition of Cards. This acronym is a registered trademark of Productivity, Inc.) With CEDAC, a cause-and-effect diagram is developed, but fact cards about problems and improvement cards containing ideas for solving the problems are used.
i. Analyze Fukuda's approach to developing and testing the CEDAC approach to continual improvement. Discuss the areas in which it has been most successful at the aspects of process improvement while it has not successfully addressed.
ii. Describe the several standard strategies that can be used to improve processes on a continual basis.