Brief Report on the 7th ANQ Congress Tokyo 2009

The 7th ANQ Congress Tokyo 2009 was held at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan from 15th to 18th of September 2009. The congress drew 412 participants from all over Asia, 246 of them from outside Japan. There were participants from 21 countries/regions.

Welcome reception was held in the evening of the 15th and was attended by more than 200 participants. SIGs (Special Interest Groups) were held during the reception to encourage communication between the participants from different ANQ member organizations. Some examples of the SIG themes were: Breakthrough Management, Customer Satisfaction, Service Quality, Quality in Education, Quality Function Deployment.

On the 16th, the opening ceremony was held where most of the participants were present. After welcome messages from Dr. Shuji Hashimoto, the dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Waseda University and Mr. Kunihiko Ohnuma, the president of Japanese Society for Quality Control, the participants had the opportunity to listen to two keynote speeches. The first keynote speech “Quality for Societal Wellbeing” was delivered by Mr. Janak Mehta, the chairperson of the ANQ (Asian Network for Quality), and the second keynote speech “Quality-Oriented Management in Komatsu Ltd.” was delivered by Mr. Masahiro Sakane, chairman of the board, Komatsu Ltd.

After the opening ceremony, there were technical sessions. Two special sessions and a satellite session were held along with oral and technical sessions. The first of the special sessions was a panel discussion on “Role of Quality Profession in the Current Economic Crisis” moderated by Dr. Yoshinori Iizuka, the second was also a panel discussion on “How to Attain Quality Excellence by Statistical and Related Methodologies” moderated by Dr. Hiroe Tsubaki. The satellite session was held between India, Thailand, and Japan using internet connection. The total number of presentations was 162 where 100 were oral presentations and 62 were poster presentations. The remarkable point is that there were no ‘open frames’ where there was no speaker to make a presentation, which means all the slots for presentations were occupied at the time when the congress was actually held.

The closing ceremony was held in afternoon of the 17th where all the participants at the venue were present. There were two keynote speeches: “Shared Prosperity: The Value of Quality” by Mr. Gregory Watson, the president of IAQ (International Academy for Quality) and “Category A Strategy vs. Category J Strategy” by Dr. Noriaki Kano, Honorary Chairperson of ANQ. After the keynote speeches, Best Paper Awards, ANQ Recognitions, ANQ Membership Plaques ANQ Participation Award, and IAQ Awards are awarded to the winners and the recipients. The prize giving was followed by summary of the congress by Dr. Tomomichi Suzuki, the chair of the conference committee, announcement of the next congress by Mr. Ramanathan, the president of ISQ, vote of thanks by Mr. Janak Mehta, chairperson of ANQ, and closing remarks by Dr. Kazuyuki Suzuki, the president-elect of JSQC.

The farewell party was held right after the closing ceremony. SIGs took place again. Some were continuing discussion two days earlier, some starting a new one with new friends. After one hour of SIG time, there were attractions from participating ANQ organizations. The party ended in a very friendly atmosphere.

On the 18th, there were three technical visits. All the visits were full. The participants visited Oppma Plant of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Akagi Plant (Sanden Forest) of Sanden Corporation, or Futtsu Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company Inc. Each visit provided valuable experience to the participants.

Finally, on behalf of the conference committee of the 7th ANQ Congress Tokyo 2009, I would like to thank all the participants, voluntary staff, and sponsors for their great contributions to make this congress successful.

Tomomichi Suzuki, Chair, Conference Committee