W.EDWARDS DEMING: Father of Modern Quality
BACKGROUND
William Edwards Deming (W. Edwards Deming as an adult) was a small-town boy but rose to be a “colossus of modern management thinking”. He was born on October 14, 1900 to William Albert Deming and Pluma Irene Edwards. Both parents When he was 17 years old, the Demings moved to Wyoming and he entered University of Wyoming funding his education as a janitor. He graduated in 1921 from his BS in Electrical Engineering degree and he went to the University of Colorado in, where he obtained an MS in Physics and Mathematics in 1925. In 1928, he earned his doctorate in physics from Yale University.
Deming’s interest shifted from physics to statistics and in 1940, he got hired by the US Census Bureau. Upon completion of the 1940 census, he worked at introducing Statistical Quality Control to industrial operations. In 1946, he left the Bureau to establish his own firm, serving to a larger degree manufacturers, telephone companies, railways, trucking companies, census takers, hospitals, governments, and research organizations. He also taught sampling and quality control at the New York University where he was professor emeritus.
Through his ideas, Deming effected quality improvement. In Japan, he was acclaimed to have cast huge influence over top executives and engineers in quality management. This was believed to be “the driving force the nation’s economic rise.” Japan’s “phenomenal export-led growth and its current technological leadership in automobiles, shipbuilding, and electronics” had been attributed to Deming so that, the Union of Japanese Science and Engineering by awarding a Deming Prize for important accomplishments in product quality and dependability. The emperor in 1960 awarded him the Second Order Medal of the Sacred Treasure.
Deming’s approach was based on statistics but focused on responsibilities of management. While others focused on details by the focused on broad philosophical view that considered quality in overall economic terms.
Among the awards he received were: Shewhart Medal in 1956, Samuel S. Wilks Award in 1983, election to the National Academy of Engineering, National Medal of Technology in 1987, and, in 1988, Distinguished Career in Science award, and induction to the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1991. He also received the degrees L.L.D. and Sc.D. honoris causa.
He authored many books, among them are: Out of the Crisis (1986) and The New Economics (1994) which were translated into several languages. He also penned about 171 papers.
PUBLICATION/S
1. Out of the Crisis (1986)
This book is considered a classic “in quality assurance” and had earned the author, W. Edward Deming his title as the “father of quality assurance.” This book, written in 1986, after the author’s international achievement “captures the spirit and ideas that spawned a revolution.”
“The book captures many of the key points in Deming's philosophy:
1) Creating metrics based approaches to management, without falling into a quota system.
2) Differentiating between problems caused by the system and problems outside of the system.
3) Focusing on both doing things correctly, and identifying the right tasks to approach.
4) Introducing a Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle of continuous improvement.
1) Creating metrics based approaches to management, without falling into a quota system.
2) Differentiating between problems caused by the system and problems outside of the system.
3) Focusing on both doing things correctly, and identifying the right tasks to approach.
4) Introducing a Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle of continuous improvement.
If you look at this list, the book presents a blueprint for many of the so called management revolutions of the subsequent 15 years: Excellence, Re-engineering, Process Management, Systems Thinking. This book really is both a trend setter as well as highly important body of theory. The theory is relevant today, as many management problems today can be addressed by his 14 points of management. (Example: A reliance on inspection is bad - build quality into the process. This is highly relevant to software construction today.)”
The book, though, “can be dry and hard to follow” for it looked like pieces of notes strung together. Also, many of the companies as examples have fallen on “tougher times”.
2. The New Economics (1994)
“The new economics was a great book to read, however it was very repetitive. Deming thinks that the current system we are in needs to be changed because its individual based, and needs to be changed to more of a team approach. He wants to get rid of the grading system because it prevents those who have low grades from becoming better because of humiliation. “
“The frankness of his opinions regarding the (lack of) essentially fundamental leadership traits in today's modern global societies, in all vital areas at all organisational strata, are both valid and brave; the information voiced is made possible only through his previous experiences and status in the field. And, if all managerial leaders of this world were to listen, be able to understand and follow Deming's ideas and underlying philosophies, societies will be enhanced beyond recognition in many aspects.”
CONTRIBUTIONS:
1. Deming's 14 Points.
Point 1: Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of the product and service so as to become competitive, stay in business and provide jobs.
Point 2: Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. We no longer need live with commonly accepted levels of delay, mistake, defective material and defective workmanship.
Point 3: Cease dependence on mass inspection; require, instead, statistical evidence that quality is built in.
Point 4: Improve the quality of incoming materials. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of a price alone. Instead, depend on meaningful measures of quality, along with price.
Point 5: Find the problems; constantly improve the system of production and service. There should be continual reduction of waste and continual improvement of quality in every activity so as to yield a continual rise in productivity and a decrease in costs.
Point 6: Institute modern methods of training and education for all. Modern methods of on-the-job training use control charts to determine whether a worker has been properly trained and is able to perform the job correctly. Statistical methods must be used to discover when training is complete.
Point 7: Institute modern methods of supervision. The emphasis of production supervisors must be to help people to do a better job. Improvement of quality will automatically improve productivity. Management must prepare to take immediate action on response from supervisors concerning problems such as inherited defects, lack of maintenance of machines, poor tools or fuzzy operational definitions.
Point 8: Fear is a barrier to improvement so drive out fear by encouraging effective two-way communication and other mechanisms that will enable everybody to be part of change, and to belong to it.
Fear can often be found at all levels in an organization: fear of change, fear of the fact that it may be necessary to learn a better way of working and fear that their positions might be usurped frequently affect middle and higher management, whilst on the shop-floor, workers can also fear the effects of change on their jobs.
Point 9: Break down barriers between departments and staff areas. People in different areas such as research, design, sales, administration and production must work in teams to tackle problems that may be encountered with products or service.
Point 10: Eliminate the use of slogans, posters and exhortations for the workforce, demanding zero defects and new levels of productivity without providing methods. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships.
Point 11: Eliminate work standards that prescribe numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for people in management. Substitute aids and helpful leadership.
Point 12: Remove the barriers that rob hourly workers, and people in management, of their right to pride of workmanship. This implies, abolition of the annual merit rating (appraisal of performance) and of management by objectives.
Point 13: Institute a vigorous program of education, and encourage self-improvement for everyone. What an organization needs is not just good people; it needs people that are improving with education.
Point 14: Top management's permanent commitment to ever-improving quality and productivity must be clearly defined and a management structure created that will continuously take action to follow the preceding 13 points.
2. Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle. This concept was invented by Shewhart and popularized by Deming. This approach is a cyclic process for planning and testing improvement activities prior to full-scale implementation and/or prior to formalizing the improvement. When an improvement idea is identified, it is often wise to test it on a small scale prior to full implementation to validate its benefit. Additionally, by introducing a change on a small scale, employees have time to accept it and are more likely to support it. The Deming PDCA Cycle provides opportunities for continuous evaluation and improvement.
The steps in the Deming PDCA or PDSA Cycle are as follows:
1. Plan a change or test (P).
- Do it (D). Carry out the change or test, preferably on a small scale.
- Check it (C). Observe the effects of the change or test. Study it (S).
- Act on what was learned (A).
- Repeat Step 1, with new knowledge.
- Repeat Step 2, and onward. Continuously evaluate and improve.
3. Deming’s Chain Reaction
If one focuses on quality and improves the quality, customer satisfaction goes up. That results in increased market share and companies can lower prices. This is what is External to organization and viewed by the world.
Internally if Quality goes up , productivity increases. This is because REWORK is reduced. This point is what most could not visualize or accept easily. As productivity increases the costs goes down.
With reduced costs and reduced prices the Profits go up. This principle was implemented successfully in many Japanese organization.
REFERENCES:
1. Rose, K. (2005). Project quality management: Why, what, and how. USA: J. Ross Publishing, Inc.
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