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W Edwards DemingDr Deming is the one Quality Guru most people connected with industry have heard of. Born in 1900, Dr Deming died in 1993.
Rise to fameW Edwards Deming was awarded his doctorate in mathematical physics in 1928. He then worked in the US Government Service for many years, particularly in statistical sampling techniques. He became particularly interested in the work of statistician Walter Shewhart, and believed that his principles could be equally applied to non-manufacturing process. He applied Shewhart's concepts to his work at the National Bureau of the Census. Routine clerical operations were brought into statistical process control in preparation for the 1940 population Census. This led to six-fold productivity improvements in some processes. As a result, Deming started to run statistical courses to explain his and Shewart's methods to engineers, designers, etc., in the US and Canada. In 1943 he published a technical book, Statistical Adjustment of data.Beneficial effects of Deming's programmes were seen such as reductions in scrap and rework. However, these advances did not have a lasting effect after the war. In the boom market anything that was produced was sold - with or without statistical or quality control. A second factor had a strong bearing on Deming's later success. To quote him: 'The courses were well-received by engineers, but management paid no attention to them. Management did not understand that they had to get behind improvement of quality and carry out their obligations from the top down. Any instabilities can help to point out specific times or locations of local problems. Once these local problems are removed, there is a process that will continue until someone changes it. Changing the process is management's responsibility. And we failed to teach them that.'(1) After the war Deming was sent to Japan as an adviser to the Japanese Census. He became involved with the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) after its formation in 1946. At about the same time a delegation from Bell Telephone Laboratories in America visited Japan and demonstrated Deming's quality control techniques. As a result, Deming's name became known and JUSE invited him to lecture to the Japanese on statistical methods. In the early '50s he lectured to engineers and senior managers, including in his lectures principles now regarded as part of TQM, or Company-wide Quality. In 1956 Deming was awarded the Shewhart medal by the American Society for Quality Control. Four years later, Deming's teachings were widely known in Japan and the Emperor awarded him the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure. It was not until the 1970s, however, that Deming started to make an impact in the West. This appeared to happen when in 1979 Bill Conway, President of Nashua Corporation met with Deming. An NBC television documentary broadened his audience in 1980. It was entitled, If Japan Can, Why Can't We?. Throughout the 1980s various books were written by others to document and explain his work. His own book Out of the Crisis was published in 1986 and he was awarded the National Medal of Technology in America the following year. Also in 1987, the British Deming Association was formed to spread awareness of the Deming philosophy. (1) The Keys to Excellence - Nancy R Mann Deming's message to the JapaneseDeming's message to the Japanese reflected his statistical background. However, he broadened Shewhart's manufacturing approach to include non-manufacturing and human variation. He encouraged managers to focus on variability and understand the difference between special causes and common causes. He said that the special causes of variation in a product, process or service were those which prevented its performance from remaining constant in a statistical sense. These special causes are often easily assignable: changes of operator, shift, or procedure, for example. They can often be identified, and sometimes solved by local operators. On the other hand, common causes are those which remain once the special causes have been eliminated. They are due to the design, or the operation of the process or system. They may be identified by the operators, but only management authority can eliminate common causes. However, Deming's lectures and work extended considerably beyond statistical methods. He encouraged the Japanese to adopt a systematic approach to problem solving, which later became known as the Deming or PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Action) cycle. He also pushed senior managers to become actively involved in their company's quality improvement programmes. Deming's work in the WestDeming's work in Japan has been identified as putting Japan on the road to leadership in international business and industry. Subsequent work by Deming and his followers in the United States and elsewhere has attempted to make major changes in the style of Western management. This is however more management-based than statistically-based. Much of this is captured in his book Out of the Crisis. Deming constantly improved and refined his ideas, also taking on-board ideas from others and he is probably seen as the father figure of the modern quality revolution; perhaps the number one Guru.Dr Deming himself emphasised that no one sentence or chapter of his books captured the full intent of any of his 14 fundamental points. However, he placed great importance and responsibility on management, both at the individual, company and societorial level. In particular, in talking about the need to transform American management in the 1980s he stated: 'Failure of management to plan for the future and to foresee problems have brought about waste of manpower, of materials, and of machine-time, all of which raise the manufacturer's cost and price that the purchaser must pay. The consumer is not always willing to subsidise this waste. The inevitable result is loss of market.'(2) So what is management's way forward?: 'Everyone doing his best is not the answer. It is first necessary that people know what to do. Drastic changes are required. The first step in the transformation is to learn how to change... Long term commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks transformation. The timid and the faint-hearted, and people that expect quick results are doomed to disappointment.'(2) Whilst the introduction of statistical problem solving and quality techniques and computerisation and robotisation have a part to play, this is not the solution: 'Solving problems, big problems and little problems, will not halt the decline of American industry, nor will expansion in use of computers, gadgets, and robotic machinery. Benefits from massive expansion of new machinery also constitute a vain hope. Massive immediate expansion in the teaching of statistical methods to production workers is not the answer either, nor wholesale flashes of quality control circles. All these activities make their contribution, but they only prolong the life of the patient, they can not halt the decline'.(2) Only transformation of management and of Government's relations with industry can halt the decline. Even in Japan in the 1950s, Deming taught that 'the consumer is the most important part of the production line'. One useful portrayal of the Deming philosophy, the Joiner Triangle, shows this concern with the customer. The word 'obsession' conveys the profound and primary importance of quality. Deming was concerned with delighting, rather than merely satisfying customers. The Joiner Triangle shows that such quality is achieved by total teamwork and the 'scientific approach'. Certain features of his later teachings in America were based on such foundations. In his seminars in America in 1980, he spoke of the need for 'the total transformation of Western Style of Management'. He produced his 14 Points for Management, in order to help people understand and implement the necessary transformation. Deming said that adoption of, and action on, the 14 points are a signal that management intend to stay in business. They apply to small or large organisations, and to service industries as well as to manufacturing. However the 14 points should not be seen as the whole of his philosophy, or as a recipe for improvement. They need careful discussion in the context of one's own organisation. (2) W Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis 1986 Deming's 14 Points
Action planThe steps in his seven point action plan are thus:
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Latter-day DemingIn the late 1980s and early 1990s Deming's thinking can perhaps best be expressed as Management by Positive Co-operation. He talks about the New Climate which consists of three elements. These are Joy in Work, Innovation and Co-operation. He has referred to this New Climate as 'Win: Win', as opposed to the 'I Win: You Lose' attitude engendered by the ethic of Competition.Before his death Deming appears to have attempted a summary of his 60 years' experience. This he called the System of Profound Knowledge. It describes four interrelated parts:
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Deming believed that managers who lacked this understanding of variation, and
confused the two types of variation could actually make matters worse. Furthermore
he revised his views on responsibility for variation, until by the mid 1980s he
estimated that management was accountable for up to 94% of the potential improvement.