Edward Deming's Principles in Quality Control
A lesson from the Reconstruction of Japan
One of the greatest achievements in the last century was The Reconstruction of Japan in the aftermath of The Second World War. Although it is always difficult to attribute such an event to a single person, it’s worth studying the impact and thinking that single figures had in shaping a that event.
Edward Deming,’s principles, that were used to train many Japanese engineers, managers, and scholars in quality control is worth revisiting.
Despite being a statistician, Deming was clearly against micromanagement, merit systems, rewarding performance with higher pay, and in particular he emphasized the need for lifelong learning, building trust, and encouraging cooperation as opposed to competition between team members. It’s also clear that Deming thought that error is a consequence of systemic failure and not necessarily an individual failing at his task.
My personal view is that much of corporate culture is a tickbox today with top down pressure. The inefficiencies in management style, and MBA thinking, is at the root of what leads to bad engineering and cost overruns with too many paper being pushed around, too many risk assessments, code compliances, and frankly boring tasks that few people, even those who audit them, actually care about.
If the tasks are monotonous, repetitive, unintellectual and unfulfilling, then we shouldn’t be surprised if polls find that up to 1 in 20 workers in the UK (who is no exception to this) think that their jobs are useless.
The workplace does need improvement, and while there might be no easy answer, Denning’s 16 principles, that was articulated in his book Out of Crisis remain a timeless excellent guide to improve bad management, create cost competitive products, and to build modern institutions.
Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive, to stay in business and to provide jobs.
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.
Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for massive inspection by building quality into the product in the first place.
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.
Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
Institute training on the job.
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.
Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
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.
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.
Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute with leadership.
Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers and numerical goals. Instead substitute with leadership.
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.
Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objectives.
Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.
I learned about Deming in undergraduate Industrial Engineering courses, learning that he had been more or less run out of the United States after the war because there was no incentive to adopt his ideas and that the Japanese embraced him and immediately began implementing his ideas in their economy (Toyota Production System is, I think, heavily based on Deming's principles).
With many, many years now of work experience as both a worker and as an engineer, I think Deming's ideas are transformative and timeless. We would have better jobs, better products, and a better economy if we lived by and practiced his principles.