ADAM SMITH (16 June 1723 17 July 1790) Father of Modern Economics and Capitalism

Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations. The Wealth of Nations tells that unproductive labor should be pushed back to use more labor productively and productive labor should be made even more productive by deepening the division of labor. So it is considered his MAGNUM OPUS and the first modern work of Economics. It earned him an enormous reputation. In 2009, Smith was named among the 'Greatest Scots' of all time.

GEORGE ELTON MAYO (26 December 1880 - 7 September 1949) Founder of Human Behavioral Factors
George Elton Mayo was an Australian psychologist, sociologist and organization theorist. Mayo is known as the founder of the Human Relations Movement, and is known for his research including the Hawthorne Studies and his book The Human Problems of an Industrialized Civilization (1933). The research conducted under the Hawthorne Studies of the 1930s showed the importance of groups in affecting the behavior of individuals at work. This enabled to make certain deductions about how managers should behave. Mayo carried out a number of investigations to look at ways of improving productivity. People will form work groups and this can be used by management to benefit the organization. Mayo concluded that people's work performance is dependent on both social issues and job content.

FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR (March 20, 1856 March 21, 1915) Father of Scientific Management
Frederick Winslow Taylor was an American mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. He is regarded as the father of Scientific management and was one of the first Management consultants. Taylor was one of the intellectual leaders of the Efficiency Movement and his ideas, broadly conceived, were highly influential in the Progressive Era. Taylor's own written works were designed for presentation to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). These include Notes on Belting (1894), A Piece-Rate System (1895), Shop Management (1903), Art of Cutting Metals (1906), and The Principles of Scientific Management (1911). Taylor was President of the ASME from 1906 to 1907.

HENRY FORD (July 30, 1863 April 7, 1947) Founder of Assembly line Technique
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the Assembly line technique of Mass production. His introduction of the Model T and Model A automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. He is credited with Fordism: mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents.

KAORU ISHIKAWA (July 13, 1915 - April 16, 1989) Quality Guru
Kaoru Ishikawa was a Japanese university professor and influential quality management innovator best known in North America for the Ishikawa or Cause and Effect diagram also known as (fishbone diagram) that is used in the analysis of industrial process. Ishikawa introduced the concept of Quality circles (1962) in conjunction with Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). Ishikawa was the chairman of the editorial board of the monthly Statistical Quality Control. Ishikawa would write two books on quality circles QC Circle Koryo and How to Operate QC Circle Activities.

WILLIAM EDWARDS DEMING (October 14, 1900 December 20, 1993) Quality Guru
William Edwards Deming was an American, he is perhaps best known for his work in Japan. Deming called the cycle the Shewhart Cycle, after Walter A. Shewhart. The Deming Cycle or Shewhart Cycle, the Deming Cycle describes a simple method to test information before making a major decision. The 4 steps in the Deming Cycle are: Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), also known as Plan-Do-Study-Act or PDSA.Deming made a significant contribution to Japan's later reputation for innovative high-quality products and its economic power. Deming was the author of Out of the Crisis (19821986) and The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (1993), which includes his System of Profound Knowledge and the 14 Points for Management.

WALTER ANDREW SHEWHART (March 18, 1891 - March 11, 1967) Father of Statistical Quality Control
Walter Andrew Shewhart was an American physicist, engineer and statistician, sometimes known as the father of Statistical Quality Control. Born in New Canton, Illinois to Anton and Esta Barney Shewhart, he attended the University of Illinois before being awarded his doctorate in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1917. Shewhart worked to advance the thinking at Bell Telephone Laboratories from their foundation. Shewhart framed the problem in terms of assignable-cause and chance-cause variation and introduced the control chart as a tool for distinguishing between the two. Dr. Shewhart concluded that while every process displays variation, some processes display controlled variation that is natural to the process, while others display uncontrolled variation that is not present in the process causal system at all times.

JOSEPH MOSES JURAN (December 24, 1904 February 28, 2008) Quality Guru
Joseph Moses Juran was a 20th century management consultant who is principally remembered as an evangelist for quality and quality management. Juran stumbled across the work of Vilfredo Pareto and began to apply the Pareto principle to quality issues. In later years Juran preferred "the vital few and the useful many" to signal that the remaining 80% of the causes should not be totally ignored. Juran is widely credited for adding the human dimension to quality management. He also developed the "Juran's trilogy" an approach to cross-functional management that is composed of three managerial processes: quality planning, quality control and quality improvement.

LILLIAN MOLLER GILBRETH (May 24, 1878 January 2, 1972)

Lillian Moller Gilbreth was an American psychologist and industrial engineer. One of the first working female engineers holding a Ph.D. she is arguably the first true industrial/organizational psychologist. She and her husband Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. were efficiency experts who contributed to the study of industrial engineering in fields such as motion study and human factors. Lillian Gilbreth combined the perspectives of an engineer, a psychologist, a wife, and a mother; she helped industrial engineers see the importance of the psychological dimensions of work. She became the first American engineer ever to create a synthesis of psychology and scientific management. Additionally, the Gilbreths did research on fatigue study, the forerunner to ergonomics.

MASAAKI IMAI (BORN 1930) Father of Continuous Improvement

Masaaki Imai is a consultant in the field of quality management. Known as the Lean Guru and the father of Continuous Improvement (CI) Masaaki Imai has been a pioneer and leader in spreading the Kaizen philosophy all over the world. His book, Kaizen: The Key to Japans Competitive Success (1986), firmly embedding the word Kaizen in the corporate lexicon. It was the first book to introduce the LEAN philosophy to the world, The Machine That Changed The World: The Story of Lean Production. His first-hand account is based on his close associations and travels with such corporate figures as Shoichiro Toyoda and Taichi Ohno and reveals the secrets behind the success of Toyota and other Japanese companies.