Touchstone
Why the name Touchstone?Right from the begining of David Hutchins organisation in 1979, we have from time to time produced a number of free newsetters for the benefit of our clients and friends. Since 1990 the name of our Newsletter has been Touchstone.
The meaning of the word derives from the original Craft Guilds in the reign of Edward III. The wardens of the Goldsmiths Company were empowered "utterley to condemn and seize and break all defective work and to force good work to be stamped with the Company's mark" In addition to the owners' anmd sayer's' mark, products of gold and silver had to be stamped with the leopard's head. Work stamped with the Hall mark was said to "bear the touch" from the testing of gold with a polished stone. If this, the "touchstone" of quality, was satisfactory, the result was said to be "as true as touch."
On the following page you will find all but the current issue of electronic Touchstones and some older versions which have been scanned in. The current issue can be found on the NEWS page. There is a very brief list of topis included in each edition. There are gaps in the dates because we have usually produced them when we have found the time or when there has something that we particulalry want our clients to know.
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You will find many articles on such subjects as: Six Sigma, Lean Manufacture, Quality Circles, Kaizen, Benchmarking, Problem Solving Tools, History of Quality and many other Business performance Improvement methods.
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Touchstone archive
See also David Hutchins latest book
Hoshin Kanri - The Strategic Approach to Continuous Improvement