Yuzuru Ito

Yuzuru Ito was the founder of Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) and Ito University. United Technologies Corporation (UTC) established Ito University as the tangible means to build a network of lean leadership philosophies to improve UTC's internal and external supply systems.

The 64-year-old Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (MC) retiree named Yuzuru Ito to move to a Hartford suburb to work on improving the productivity of UTC's businesses. George David first encountered Ito in 1989, after he was brought in by the unit's Japanese joint venture partner, Matsushita Industrial, to try to figure out why Otis's fancy new Elevonic 401 elevators were such clunkers. Their callback rates—the number of times per year a building owner has to call mechanics for service—were as high as 40 per unit a year, vs. an average of 0.5 for rival Mitsubishi Electric. When Otis dispatched a team of U.S. engineers to get the machines working, their Japanese partners hauled them into the boardroom to analyze the cause of the problem—even as some elevators were shut down and literally burning. Later, with Ito in charge, the work they did changed the fundamental design of the elevator line worldwide. The late Yuzuru Ito, Ito University was established by United Technologies Company (UTC) to educate and promote quality, Lean & Positive Thinking philosophies across all UTC divisions worldwide.