David Hutchins receives Prestigious Award
David was initiated in Observatory Lodge in the Province of Buckinghamshire in 1997. Went through the Chair their in both Craft and Mark, Achieved ‘Z’ in Chapter in Grecian Chapter that meets at Gt Queen Street. Moved to Somerset in 2006 became a joining member in Portcullis Craft Lodge fairly soon afterwards, went through the Chair their followed by the same in Portcullis Mark for 2 years immediately following Covid, rejoined RAM. In Craft currently PPvGReg.
David said the award goes back to the time when he was a Production Engineer for a company manufacturing high volume, high precision parts for the Auto industry in the 1960s suddenly with no warning, Japan swung from a reputation for making cheap and shoddy goods to quality levels, and costs that we could not match. The reaction of industry generally was denial, due to outdated views. As a Practical Production Engineer he could not see the connection and dug in deeper. It is a long history but eventually he got to the bottom of it. When he did, he could not see that there was much that required a Japanese culture to replicate it. Fortunately there were a number of significant UK companies who were prepared to trust his judgment and give him the opportunity to implement the concepts into their organisations.
This was all in the late 1970s early 1980s and since then he has worked in over 40 countries, Been a keynote speaker at numerous International Conferences and written 10 books on the subject.
In the Award ceremony he was required to give a strictly 20 minute account of that history and the relevant events leading up to it.
David believe there is still a very great deal that British industry can learn from all of this and if anyone with a business wanting to talk about it he is freely available and would welcome the opportunity.
