W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993) changed our lives by developing better ways for people to work together. Deming was educated in engineering and physics and became an early student of statistics. In his native USA Deming’s ideas were thought to be too radical. He was an outsider. His big break came when he was invited to Japan as part of the US rebuilding programme after the Second World War.
He developed his philosophy helping Japanese export industries to recover following World War II. He said he could teach them to produce quality goods more cheaply than quantity, a revolutionary idea in 1950. He told them to treat manufacturing as a system rather than “bits and pieces.” He said to include the supplier and the customer in the system and to use feedback from the customer to continually improve products, services and processes. He also said to continually improve both the people in the system and the communication between them. And he said that decisions should be based on facts and data.
His ideas were adopted by Japanese auto and electronic export companies who would dominate against his homeland. Key ideas were satisfying customers, close ties with suppliers, empowering workers, managing for quality, and eliminating layers of management and hierarchy.
US News & World Report listed Deming’s philosophy, along with St. Paul, the numerous pre-Columbian discoveries of America and Napoleon’s conquest of Europe, as one of history’s nine hidden turning points.
Deming would evoke disbelief in his management seminars when he insisted that 94 percent or more of all problems, defective goods or services came from the system, not from a careless worker or a defective machine.
His famous 14 points formed the basis for the TQM or Total Quality Management theory.
Here are the 14 points in full:
11. Aim for continuous improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive, stay in business and to provide jobs.
&2. ;Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.
&3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for massive inspection by building quality into the product in the first place.
44. ;End the practice of awarding business on the basis of a price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move towards a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
&5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
&6. Institute training on the job.
&7. ;Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.
&8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
&9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, in order to foresee problems of production and usage that may be encountered with the product or service.
&10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. They only create adversarial relationships.
a. Remove quotas from the factory floor. Substitute with leadership.
b. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers and numerical goals. Instead substitute with leadership.
a11Remove barriers preventing pride in ones work. Quality is more important than numbers.
112 Remove barriers preventing managers having pride in their work. Abolish merit ratings & management by objectives. management by objectives.
&13. Institute education and self-improvement.
&14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish change. Change is everybody's job.
Deming is still remembered as Japan awards the Deming Prize for companies and individuals which celebrate excellence in quality.
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