5.2.2: Edwards Deming (1900-1993)

Dr. Deming is likely the most well known of the Quality Gurus. He was an American engineer, statistician, professor and author. Dr. Deming was recruited to Japan after WWII to assist with their national census. Beginning in 1950 Deming trained thousands of Japanese engineers, managers, and scholars in basic statistical process control. He is credited with guiding the rise of Japanese superior quality. In appreciation for Deming’s guidance the Japanese named their highest quality award after Dr. Deming (The Deming Prize). Dr. Deming has an extensive list of published works but is likely most well known for Deming’s 14 points^[2] and the Deming Cycle.

Edward Deming's "14 Points"

1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive, to 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.
4. 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, 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. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
    1. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute with leadership.
    2. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers and numerical goals. Instead substitute with leadership.
11. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
12. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody’s job.

The Deming Cycle or Deming Wheel is also known as PDCA, or “Plan, Do, Check, Act.” It is a version of continuous improvement that emphasizes the continuous nature of process improvement.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): An example utilizing PDCA to attain a higher grade in OPM; Courtesy of Jim Philips.

Figure 5.4: An example utilizing PDCA to attain a higher grade in OPM; Courtesy of Jim Philips.