David Hutchins
David Hutchins is a business performance improvement mentor, course creator, and transformation consultant. The author of 10 books on business and quality management, his core focus is to assist organisations directly or through courses to make the best possible use of their entire payroll from CEO to the person who might lock the gates at night. The collective title for his work is a Japanese term referred to as ‘Hoshin Kanri,’ which embraces another term referred to as Total Quality Management (TQM) that includes Quality Circles.
Throughout his continuing career, David has championed the pursuit of Quality Excellence through people involvement and empowerment, rather than mere conformance. His work has taken him to over 40 countries, earning him Outstanding Achievement Awards and an internationally recognised Literature Award for his ninth book, Quality Beyond Borders.
David has undertaken Governmental Change Management assignments for UNIDO and the World Bank in Egypt and Tunisia. He has also served as the Technical Advisor for the BBC Select 5-part series on Total Quality Management in the early 1990s. For many years, he was the sole UK Academician in the International Academy for Quality. IAQ is acknowledged to be the world’s leading authority in the Quality Sciences and Disciplines.
His main specialities, amongst many others, include:
- Hoshin Kanri, which comprises Policy & Strategy Deployment, Policy Control and Daily Management
- Total Quality Management (TQM), based on the Japanese way that involves Total Employee Involvement (TEI)
- Self-managing workgroups (also known as Quality Circles)
- Lean and Six Sigma
- Project-by-Project Improvement and Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
- New Product Development tools & processes
- Supply Chain Management & Benchmarking
- E-learning and distance learning course creation (Levels 3–8 in Quality Sciences and Disciplines)
David began his career in Industrial and Production Engineering in 1960, specialising in high-precision Automotive and Printing machinery. His expertise led him to the role of Works Manager before transitioning into education and consultancy in 1969. His primary motivation was to drive British manufacturing to respond to the rising competitive challenge from Japan.
In 1973, David organised the UK’s first-ever seminar on Total Quality Control. He later founded his own consultancy, education, and training organisation in 1975. In 1979, he played a pivotal role in organising The Japanese Approach to Product Quality—a landmark event at the Institute of Directors, featuring Professor Kaoru Ishikawa’s only visit to the UK and Europe.
He is a co-founder of the Global Excellence Team (GET), which promotes Japanese Business Management Science across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Gulf, and North America, supporting organisations of all sizes and industries.
The author of ten best-selling books on quality and management, a couple out of his many notable achievements include:
- Turnaround of a British Aircraft Manufacturer
- Provided external support to a struggling government-owned company.
- Transformed 15 years of consistent losses into a £45 million net profit within two years
- Steel Industry Transformation
- Assisted a 3 million-tonne-per-year steel producer in increasing output to 4 million tonnes per year with minimal capital investment
- Achieved cost savings of $220 million over three years, with an annual accrued saving of $69 million
- Within a few years, production exceeded 7.8 million tonnes, defying global industry challenges.
