Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others for thou has many faults and  imperfections of thine own that require forbearance. If thou are not able to make thyself that which thou wishest, how canst thou expect to mold another in conformity to thy will?

Thomas A. Kempis

The Re-invention of “Quality for Profit” Philosophy

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, entitled “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?”,  broadened his audience in 1980.  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. In addition, in 1987, the British Deming Association was formed to spread awareness of the Deming philosophy.

Deming's Message to the Japanese

Deming'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 corrected by effecting changes of operator, shift or procedure. They can often be identified, and sometimes solved by existing personnel. Common causes may be identified by those that remain once the special causes have been eliminated. Common causes are inherent to the design, or the operation of the process / system. Variation may be identified by the operators, but only the management can eliminate common causes.

Deming believed that managers who lacked this understanding of variation, and thus confused the two types of variation, could actually make matters worse. By the middle of the 1980s, he estimated that management was accountable for up to 94% of the potential improvement.

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 programs.      

Deming's Work in the West

Dr. Deming'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 management. This is a more management-based than statistically based view of Quality Management. Deming constantly improved and refined his ideas. Dr. Deming understood that quality was a living, breathing aspect of business and would adopt the ideas of others in the field of global quality.

Dr. Deming emphasized that no one point or chapter in his books scripted the full intent of his 14 fundamental points. He did place great importance and responsibility on management, at the individual, company and societal level. During his lectures 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 subsidize this waste. The inevitable result is loss of market.”

When asked “What direction must management proceed?”, Deming stated, ”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.”

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.

Deming was concerned with delighting, rather than merely satisfying customers. The Joiner Triangle shows that such quality is achieved by teamwork and the scientific approach. Certain features of his later teachings in America were based on such foundations.

(Next submission: Deming's 14 points for Management)