William Edwards Deming2003

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1William Edwards Deming

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William Edwards Deming(October 14, 1900 December 20, 1993)


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William Edwards Deming was an American

Statistician, Professor, Author, Lecturer, and Consultant.

Deming is widely credited with improving production in the

United States during the Cold War, although he is perhaps best

known for his work in Japan. He is regarded as having had more

impact upon Japanese manufacturing andbusiness than any

other individual not of Japanese heritage. There, from 1950

onward he taught top management how to Improve Design (and

thus service), Product quality Testing and Sales (the last through

global markets) through various methods, including the

application of Statistical methods.
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Quick History

W. Edwards Deming was born in Sioux City, Lowa and was raised

in Polk City, Lowa.

Deming received a BSc in electrical engineering from the University

of Wyoming at Laramie (1921), an M.S. from the University of

Colorado(1925), and a Ph.D. from Yale University (1928).

Deming was the author ofOut of the Crisis (19821986) and The

New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (1993).

In Japan, Deming's expertise in quality control techniques.

In 1960, the Prime Minister of Japan ( Nobusuke Kishi), acting on

behalf ofEmperor Hirohito, awarded Dr. Deming Japans Order of

the Sacred Treasure, Second Class.

Ford Motor Company was one of the first American corporations to

seek help from Deming.

Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Pointsfor Management.

In 1987 he was awarded theNational Medal of Technology.

In 1988, he received the Distinguished Career in Science award from

theNational Academy of Sciences.
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In December 1993, W. Edwards Deming died in his sleep at the age

of 93 in his Washington home at about 3 a.m. due to "natural causes."

Deming Philosophy Synopsis

Dr. W. Edwards Deming taught that by adopting appropriate

principles of management, organizations can increase quality and

simultaneously reduce costs (by reducing waste, rework, staff attrition

and litigation while increasing customer loyalty).

Dr. Deming's philosophy was summarized by some of his Japaneseproponents with the following 'a'-versus-'b' comparison:

When people and organizations focus primarily on quality, defined bythe following ratio,

Quality tends to increase and costs fall over time.

However, when people and organizations focus primarily on costs,costs tend to rise and quality declines over time.


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Deming advocated that all managers need to have what he called aSystem of Profound Knowledge, consisting of four parts:

Appreciation of a system: Understanding the overall processesinvolving suppliers, producers, and customers (or recipients) of goodsand services.

Knowledge of variation: The range and causes of variation in quality,and use of statistical sampling in measurements.

Theory of knowledge: The concepts explaining knowledge and thelimits of what can be known.

Knowledge of psychology: Concepts of human nature.


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DEMING'S SEVEN DEADLY DISEASES

Deming believed that traditional management practices, such as the Seven

Deadly Diseases listed below, significantly contributed to the American

quality crisis.

1. Lack of constancy of purpose to plan and deliver products and

services that will help a company survive in the long term.

2. Emphasis on short-term profits caused by short-term thinking (which

is just the opposite of constancy of purpose), fear of takeovers, worry

about quarterly dividends, and other types of reactive management.

3. Performance appraisals (i.e., annual reviews, merit ratings) that

promote fear and stimulate unnecessary competition amongemployees.

4. Mobility of management (i.e., job hopping), which promotes short-

term thinking.

5. Management by use of visible figures without concern about other

data, such as the effect of happy and unhappy customers on sales, and


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the increase in overall quality and productivity that comes from

quality improvement upstream.

6. Excessive medical costs, which now have been acknowledged as

excessive by federal and state governments, as well as industries

themselves.

7. Excessive costs of liability further increased by lawyers working on

contingency fees.


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DEMING'S FOURTEEN POINTS


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Deming formulated the following Fourteen Points to cure (eliminate) the

Seven Deadly Diseases and help organizations to survive and flourish in the

long term:


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1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and

service. Develop a plan to be competitive and stay in business.

Everyone in the organization, from top management to shop floor

workers, should learn the new philosophy.

2. Adopt the new philosophy. Commonly accepted levels of delays,

mistakes, defective materials, and defective workmanship are now

intolerable. We must prevent mistakes.

3. Cease dependence on mass inspection. Instead, design and build in

quality. The purpose of inspection is not to send the product for

rework because it does not add value. Instead of leaving the problems

for someone else down the production line, workers must take

responsibility for their work. Quality has to be designed and built into

the product; it cannot be inspected into it. Inspection should be used

as an information-gathering device, not as a means of "assuring"quality or blaming workers.

4. Don't award business on price tag alone (but also on quality, value,

speed and long term relationship). Minimize total cost. Many

companies and organizations award contracts to the lowest bidder as

long as they meet certain requirements. However, low bids do not

guarantee quality; and unless the quality aspect is considered, the

effective price per unit that a company pays its vendors may be

understated and, in some cases, unknown. Deming urged businesses

to move toward single-sourcing, to establish long-term relationships

with a few suppliers (one supplier per purchased part, for example)

leading to loyalty and opportunities for mutual improvement.


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Using multiple suppliers has been long justified for reasons such as

providing protection against strikes or natural disasters or making the

suppliers compete against each other on cost. However, this approach

has ignored "hidden" costs such as increased travel to visit suppliers,

loss of volume discounts, increased set-up charges resulting in higher

unit costs, and increased inventory and administrative expenses. Also

constantly changing suppliers solely on the base of price increases the

variation in the material supplied to production, since each supplier's

process is different.

5. Continuously improve the system of production and service.

Management's job is to continuously improve the system with input

from workers and management. Deming was a disciple of Walter A.

Shewhart, the developer of control charts and the continuous cycle of

process improvement known as the Shewhart cycle. Deming

popularized the Shewhart Cycle as the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)

or Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle; therefore, it is also often

referred to as the Deming cycle. In the planning stage, opportunities

for improvement are recognized and operationally defined. In the

doing stage, the theory and course of action developed in the previous

stage is tested on a small scale through conducting trial runs in a

laboratory or prototype setting. The results of the testing phase are

analyzed in the check/study stage using statistical methods. In the

action stage, a decision is made regarding the implementation of the

proposed plan. If the results were positive in the pilot stage, then the

plan will be implemented. Otherwise alternative plans are developed.


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After full scale implementation, customer and process feedback will

again be obtained and the process of continuous improvement

continues.

6. Institute training on the job. When training is an integral part of the

system, operators are better able to prevent defects. Deming

understood that employees are the fundamental asset of every

company, and they must know and buy into a company's goals.

Training enables employees to understand their responsibilities in

meeting customers' needs.

7. Institute leadership (modern methods of supervision). The best

supervisors are leaders and coaches, not dictators. Deming high-

lighted the key role of supervisors who serve as a vital link between

managers and workers. Supervisors first have to be trained in the

quality management before they can communicate management'scommitment to quality improvement and serve as role models and

leaders.

8. Drive out fear. Create a fear-free environment where everyone can

contribute and work effectively. There is an economic loss associated

with fear in an organization. Employees try to please their superiors.

Also, because they feel that they might lose their jobs, they are

hesitant to ask questions about their jobs, production methods, and

process parameters. If a supervisor or manager gives the impression

that asking such questions is a waste of time, then employees will be

more concerned about pleasing their supervisors than meeting long-


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term goals of the organization. Therefore, creating an environment of

trust is a key task of management.

9. Break down barriers between areas. People should work cooperatively

with mutual trust, respect, and appreciation for the needs of others in

their work. Internal and external organizational barriers impede the

flow of information, prevent entities from perceiving organizational

goals, and foster the pursuit of subunit goals that are not necessarily

consistent with the organizational goals. Barriers between

organizational levels and departments are internal barriers.

External barriers are between the company and its suppliers,

customers, investors, and community. Barriers can be eliminated

through better communication, cross-functional teams, and changing

attitudes and cultures.

10. Eliminate slogans aimed solely at the work force. Most problems are

system-related and require managerial involvement to rectify or

change. Slogans don't help. Deming believed that people want to do

work right the first time. It is the system that 80 to 90 percent of the

time prevents people from doing their work right the first time.

11. Eliminate numerical goals, work standards, and quotas. Objectives set

for others can force sub-optimization or defective output in order to

achieve them. Instead, learn the capabilities of processes and how to

improve them. Numerical goals set arbitrarily by management,

especially if they are not accompanied by feasible courses of action,

have a demoralizing effect. Goals should be set in a participative style


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together with methods for accomplishment. Deming argued that the

quota or work standard system is a short-term solution and that quotas

emphasize quantity over quality. They do not provide data about the

process that can be used to meet the quota, and they fail to distinguish

between special and common causes when seeking improvements to

the process.

12.Remove barriers that hinder workers (and hinder pride in

workmanship). The direct effect of pride in workmanship is increased

motivation and a greater ability for employees to see themselves as

part of the same team.

This pride can be diminished by several factors:

(1) Management may be insensitive to workers' problems.

(2) They may not communicate the company's goals to all levels.

(3) They may blame employees for failing to meet company goals

when the real fault lies with the management.

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self improvement.

Deming's philosophy is based on long-term, continuous process

improvement that cannot be carried out without properly trained and

motivated employees. This point addresses the need for ongoing and

continuous education and self-improvement for the entire

organization. This educational investment serves the following

objectives:


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(1) It leads to better motivated employees.

(2) It communicates the company goals to the employees.

(3) It keeps the employees up-to-date on the latest techniques and

promotes teamwork.

(4) Training and retraining provides a mechanism to ensure adequate

performance as the job responsibilities change.

(5) Through increasing job loyalty, it reduces the number of people

who "job-hop."

14. Take action to accomplish the transformation. Create a structure in

top management that will promote the previous thirteen points. It isthe top management's responsibility to create and maintain a structure

for the dissemination of the concepts outlined in the first thirteen

points. Deming felt that people at all levels in the organization should

learn and apply his Fourteen Points if statistical process control is to

be a successful approach to process improvement and if organizations

are to be transformed. However, he encouraged top management to

learn them first. He believed that these points represent an all-or-

nothing commitment and that they cannot be implemented selectively.

The Deming Cycle


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W. Edwards Deming in the 1950's proposed that business processes should be analyzed and measured to identify sources of variations that cause products to deviate from customer requirements. To illustrate thiscontinuous process, commonly known as the PDCA cycle for Plan, Do,Check, Act*:

PLAN: Design or revise business process components to improveresults

DO: Implement the plan and measure its performance CHECK: Assess the measurements and report the results to decision

makers

ACT: Decide on changes needed to improve the process


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This 'wheel within a wheel' describes the relationship between strategic

management and business unit management in a large company. There are

actually several separate business units, of course, each with its own set of

metrics, goals, targets and initiatives. But this figure illustrates the idea that

the business activities constitute the DO part of the overall strategic effort.

DEMING PRIZE


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The Deming Prize, especially the Deming Application Prize which is given

to companies, has exerted an immeasurable influence directly or indirectly

on the development of quality control/management.

Categories of the Deming Prize

The Deming Application Prize

Given to companies or divisions of companies that have achieved

distinctive performance improvement through the application of TQM in a

designated year.

The Deming Application Prize

Given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the study

of TQM or statistical methods used for TQM, or individuals who have

made

The Deming Prize for Individuals

outstanding contributions in the dissemination of TQM.

The Quality Control Award for Operations Business Units


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Given to operations business units of a company that have achieved

distinctive performance improvement through the application of quality

control/management in the pursuit of TQM in a designated year.


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Winners Of Deming Awards

Indian manufacturing sector urged to maintain quality standards

V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman, NMCC (centre); Arun Bewoor, MCCI

president (second from left), with the Deming Awardies (from left)

T.K. Balaji, Chief Executive and Managing Director, Lucas TVS; L.

Lakshman, Chairman Rane Holdings and S. Viji, Managing Director,

Brakes India, in Chennai.

The Deming award was given to Rane Holdings, Brakes India,

Sundaram Clayton and Lucas TVS.


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DEMING AWARD FOR LUCAS-TVS

Chennai, 9 October 2004: Lucas-TVS, a TVS group company, has

bagged the prestigious Deming Application Award for the year 2004.

This was announced by the Deming Prize Committee of Japanese

Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE).

Lucas-TVS, with manufacturing facilities at Padi (Chennai),

Pondicherry and Rewari (Haryana), is the first and the only Auto

Electrical Company from India to receive this coveted award.

Lucas-TVS launched the Japanese Total Quality Management (TQM)

movement during 1998. TQM is a vehicle to continuously improve all

the Management Processes with Customer Focus in terms of Quality,

Cost, Delivery and Service and the process motivates teamwork

Lucas-TVS is the largest manufacturer of Auto Electricals in India

catering to all segments of Auto Industry, which includes Cars, Utility

Vehicles, Commercial Vehicles, Tractors and Two wheelers.

Its focus on customer, continuous improvement and employee

involvement has always been commendable. Lucas-TVS is a TS

16949 and ISO 14001 certified company.


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Tata Steel India Receives Deming Application Prize-

2008

Tata Steel India is now the first integrated steel company in the world,

outside Japan, to be awarded the Deming Application Prize for

excellence in Total Quality Management.

Mr. B Muthuraman Managing Director received this coveted medal

by Mr. Fujio Mitarai, Chairman Deming Prize Committee at a formalfunction.

The Deming award which is the highest award for quality in theworld, was given to Tata Steel not only for what the Company hasdone for its customers, employees and business partners but also forits exceptional work in the area of social welfare and uplift in the

areas of its operations.
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What Deming Taught Toyota Every 21st Century

Manager Needs to KnowDr. W. Edwards Demings principles support the global success of Toyota,

Proctor & Gamble, Ritz Carlton, Harley-Davidson, and many other leading

organizations. His teachings are essential for the effective application of

Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Loyalty/Net Promoter and other quality

improvement, customer retention and business growth methods.

Dr. Demings profound, yet simple, success strategies offer yourorganization a proven system to achieve lasting growth and success. The

principles apply universally to business, healthcare, educationin fact, to

any enterpriseand to you personally.

Ironically, this American prophetstill unknown to most of his

countrymencreated the theory behind todays successful business

practices. He is a national hero in Japan. The highest award for quality in

Japana Nobel Prize for business successis the Deming Prize, awardedwith great fanfare every year. Dr. Deming helped Toyotaand other

leading Japanese exporting companiesdevelop the vital management

philosophy and practices that enabled them to become market leaders

around the world.

Dr. Shoichiro Toyoda, Chairman and former President (1982-1999) of

Toyota, said :

Every day I think about what he meant to us. Deming is the core of ourmanagement.1

In 2005, accepting the American Society for Qualitys Deming Medal, Dr.

Toyoda elaborated :

Dr. Deming came to Japan following World War II in order to teach

industry leaders methods of statistical quality control, as well as to impart

the significance of quality control in management and his overall

management philosophy. He was an invaluable teacher, playing an


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indispensable role in the development and revitalization of post-war Japan.

Industrialists as well as academics earnestly began to study and implementDr. Deming's theories and philosophy. Dr. Deming soon became widely

known not only as a brilliant theorist, but also as a kind and modest man. In

1951, the Deming Prize was founded in order to promote the widespread

practice of quality control based on Dr. Deming's philosophy.

We at Toyota Motor Corporation introduced TQC in 1961, and in 1965

were awarded the Deming Application Prize. As we continued to

implement Dr. Deming's teachings, we were able to both raise the level ofquality of our products as well as enhance our operations on the corporate

level. I believe that TMC today is a result of our continued efforts to

implement positive change in pursuit of the Deming Prize.

Now, we are faced with rapid global restructuring of both society and

business. In the midst of these overwhelming changes, corporations faced

with the challenge of providing value to a wide range of shareholders have

begun to focus on quality innovations such as completely customer-

oriented management practices, environmental preservation, and the

upholding of corporate ethics.


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Deming's Point #1 as It Applies to the InsuranceIndustry

"Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service."This W. Edwards Deming principle has great relevance to the insuranceindustry as illustrated by real-world examples.By John Pryor

One outstanding example of "constancy of purpose" is William J. (Bill)O'Brien, when he was CEO of Hanover Insurance Companies in the 1970s.

I first met Bill at a seminar in San Diego in the early 1990s. I subsequentlyhad dinner with him and our wives in Boston at his favorite downtownrestaurant. (It was Hungarian.) He led Hanover's history-making turnaroundwith "constancy of purpose" as his principle discipline.

In San Diego, Bill told us that to lead any organizational transformation it'scritical to:

move away from the usual institutional or organization design that has

as its purpose "keeping people from screwing up"; think through your values and beliefs; and give all employees the same sense of purpose.

As confirmed by Larry Brandon in Pathway to Progress (CPCULomanEducation Foundation, 2003), "Bill worked to develop a values-based,vision-driven' organization well before writing values and vision statements

became a corporate fad."

Bill inculcated these values and vision into the culture of his organizationand its people. The Hanover turnaround was nothing less than phenomenal.From stock valued at 98 cents per share, it grew to $45 on his watch.Surplus grew from $440 million to $1.7 billionall without anyacquisitions or capital infusion.

If you want to read more about Bill O'Brien, all you have to do is pull outyour copy of Peter Senge's management classic entitled, The Fifth

Discipline. Bill is quoted on at least 52 of the 371 pages in his book.
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BillO'Brien passed away recently, but his principles live on. In fact, Bill is

quoted in Mr. Senge's Fifth Discipline Field book (Doubleday, 1994) asfollows:

We began by laying out a purpose for the company. In those days, whenmainstream businessmen believed the only purpose of business was makingmoney, it was very radical . . . It was a mission statement, although nobodyhad heard of that word yet. As soon as we had written it down, we thoughtwe'd solved our problem

However most purpose statements inspire the five or ten people who sitaround writing them, but do nothing for the 5,000 other people in thecorporation. If it is going to enlist people's spirit, a purpose must beextended into a set of values and a vision. We needed some shared sense ofwhat we stood for as an organization

As strong as were his words, his actions spoke louder. He and his companywere innovative, they emphasized education and research, and they

continually improved their products and service as they practiced anddemonstrated their "constancy of purpose."


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Deming's Point #14 as Applied to the Insurance

Industry

Deming's key admonitions to both leaders and managers as part of Point#14 are:

Start as soon as possible

Everyone can take part (as a team)

Embark on construction of organization for quality.

Hindsight is always 20:20, of course, but you have to think how differentthe outcome may have been in today's financial meltdown had CEOs of

multiple national and international financial service companies practiced

these principles and disciplines.

Property-casualty insurance companies in general (so far) seem to have

"dodged this bullet" unlike banks and other non-insurance financial

organizations that typically are higher leveraged than is customary than for

P&C insurance companies. Insurance companies typically have highly

liquid investment portfolios that are more conservativewith much less

volatilitythan other financial organizations. Yet many insurance

companies are floundering. Have those in trouble understood and practiced:

Systems thinking?

Continuous performance improvement?

Teamwork?

Strategic planning at all levels?

Listening to the "Voice of the Customer" (both internal and external)?

Training, education, and self-improvement of all staff?

Leadershipin addition to management (and understand the

difference)?

Cross-functional communication and planning?


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Put it all together in a Balanced Score Card?

These questions, and no doubt others, will perhaps provide some element of

insight. Another is the Insurance Institute of America program "Delivering

Insurance Services" (AIS-25).

This discipline and common body of knowledge seems to have been missed

by many business schools and MBA programs where many insurance

executives are concerned. It's never too late to compensate for that

omission!

This educational foundation from the Institutes should then be followed by

training of key management people as Lean Six Sigma "Green Belts"

with about 1 in 10 of the Green Belts ultimately advancing to "Black Belt"

certification. That's my remedy for the CEO of every organization in our

industry not already practicing these disciplines and best practices. What's

your solution for them?

Now let's talk more specifically about Dr. Deming's 14th Point. It is:

Take action to accomplish the transformation


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These are Dr. Deming's concluding remarks

1. Management in authority will struggle over every one of the above 13

points, the deadly diseases, the obstacles. They will agree on their meaningand on the direction to take. They will agree to carry out the new

philosophy.

2. Management in authority will take pride in their adoption of the new

philosophy and in their new responsibilities. They will have courage to

break with tradition, even to the point of exile among their peers.

3. Management in authority will explain by seminars and other means to

a critical mass of people in the company why change is necessary, and thatthe change will involve everybody. Enough people in the company must

understand the 14 points.

a. This whole movement may be instituted and carried out by middle

management, speaking with one voice.

Every activity, every job is a part of a process. A flow diagram of any

process will divide the work into stages. The stages as a whole form a

process. The stages are not individual entities, each running at maximum

profit. A flow diagram, simple or complex, is an example of a theoryan

idea. Work comes into any stage, changes state, and moves on into the next

stage. Any stage has a customer, the next stage. The final stage will send

product or service to the ultimate customer, he who buys the product or the

service. At every stage there will be:

. Production - change of state, input changes to output. Something

happens to material or papers that come into any stage. They go out in a

different state.

a. Continual improvement of methods and procedures, aimed at better

satisfaction of the customer (user) at the next stage.

Start as soon as possible to construct with deliberate speed an

organization to guide continual improvement of quality. The Shewhart


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cycle (see below) will be helpful as a procedure to follow for improvement

of any stage; also as a procedure for finding a special cause detected by

statistical signal [in a Control Chart]. The reason to study the results of a

change is to try to learn how to improve tomorrow's product, or next year'scrop. Planning requires prediction. The results of a change or test may

enhance our degree of belief for prediction, for planning. Step 4 of the

Shewhart cycle (study the results; what did we learn from the change?) will

lead:

to improvement of any stage

to better satisfaction of the customer for that stage.

Everyone can take part in a team. The aim of a team is to improve the

input and the output of any stage. A team may well be composed of people

from different staff areas. A team has a customer. Everyone on the team has

a chance to contribute ideas, plans, and figures; but anyone may expect to

find some of his best ideas submerged by consensus of the team. He may

have a good chance on the later time around the cycle. A good team has a

social memory. At successive sessions, people may tear up what they did in

the previous session and make a fresh start with clearer ideas. This is a signof advancement.

Embark on construction of organization for quality. This step will

require participation of knowledgeable statisticians. A group, a team,

should have an aim, a job, a goal. A statement thereof must not be specific

in detail, else it stifle initiative. By working in this way, everyone will see

what he can do and what only top management can do.

The focus is on the importance of a system and systems thinking. Dr.Deming defines a system as "a network of interdependent components that

work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system." He makes some

additional points about a system:

It must have an aimfor without an aim that can be no system.

The system is a "value judgment" that needs to be clear to everyone

within the system including plans for the future.


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The system's component parts need not each be clearly defined and

documented.

However, management of a system requires knowledge of these

relationships between the elements of the system and of the people whowork within it.

A system, of necessity, must be managed as it won't manage itself.

The secret is cross-functional and cross-discipline cooperation

between the elements within a systemas opposed to each of them

remaining within their own "silos"all in support of the aim or purpose of

the system.

Dr. Deming quotes St. Paul as one who2,000 years agounderstood a

system when he wrote in I Corinthians 12: 12 (NIV):

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all

its parts are many, they form one body Now the body is not made up of

one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do

not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the

body The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head

cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of

the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable and the parts that we

think are less honorable we treat with special honor.

But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater

honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the

body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored,

every part rejoices with it.

In his (now considered a classic) The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge offers a

similar yet more succinct definition of a system and how a system is

"bound by invisible fabrics of interrelated actions " and how systems

thinking, his "fifth discipline" is so critical to organizational and personal

success.


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1

We can't leave a discussion of systems without also commenting on

Deming's notion of a System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK). It's

composed of four elements:

Appreciation for a System Theory of Variation

Theory of Knowledge Understanding of Psychology

Space doesn't permit much expansion on the elements but here are some

very brief explanations:

Appreciation for a system is one's understanding of the past few

paragraphs and how component parts of a system are interdependent on one

another.

Variation is based on appreciation of a "stable system" in which

variation is limited to "common cause variation" and not indicating any

"special cause variation." The latter confirms that a process or system is not

stable and needs to be redesigned to restore control of the process. Control

charts are used to make this determination.

Knowledge is based on theories that help managers predict the future

and skills to revise hypotheses to more accurately design processes andsystems to generate predictable outcomes.

Psychology brings the human element into the data interpretation

process. It's critical to temper (not tamper) data with an understanding of

the fact that people are part and parcel of systemsand their presence

needs to be recognized.

More information on SoPK is available in Dr. Deming's books as well as inpublications of the American Society for Quality.

The "Shewhart Cycle for Learning and Improvement" is more commonly

referred to as the PDSA cycle, i.e., Plan, Do, Check, Act. In Six Sigma, it's

referred to as DMIAC:

Define the problem and what it is the customer (internal or external)

expects.

Measure the defects (variation) in each process or system.


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Analyze the data and discover (root) causes of the problem. Improve

[emphasis bold] the process to eliminate defects (variation).

Control the process to be certain defects (variation) do not continue.

PDSA is best illustrated in a circular format, as depicted in Figure 1.

Conclusion

Where do we go from here with this series on continuous performance

improvement? In case you're assuming Dr. Deming's 14th and last point

concludes this series wrong!


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The W. Edwards Deming Institute is a nonprofit organization that wasfounded in 1993 by noted consultant Dr. W. Edwards Deming.

The aim of the Institute is to foster understanding of The Deming System ofProfound Knowledge to advance commerce, prosperity and peace.

Participation in The W. Edwards Deming Institute means that we shareDr. Deming's vision of a better world. We participate because we strive,with joy, to carry on the work that he began. We seek to conduct ourselvesin a manner consistent with his high moral and ethical standards,

professional and personal integrity, and commitment to lifelong learning.

We do this solely from our dedication to the philosophy and values of Dr.Deming and our belief that together, with humility, we can and will make adifference in the quality of life for everyone.

Documents

William Edwards Deming2003