Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 22, 1993 TAG: 9401220008
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In 1950, the American statistician was asked by Japanese business leaders to help rebuild their economy, which had been left in ruins by the war. He taught them statistical techniques for detecting variations in production, so they could reduce defects, waste and costs while boosting productivity.
More important, Deming helped convince the Japanese that they needed to emphasize quality to develop a global strategic advantage. His advice was well-taken.
American industry, in contrast, was left fat and happy by World War II, and was able to reap big profits while largely ignoring quality. Not until the early 1980s, after they had begun feeling competitive heat from the Japanese and others, did U.S. businesses start listening to Deming's message.
By no means was Deming the only quality guru. (Management consulting has proved a growth industry.) He was, though, perhaps the central figure in the movement that spawned what is called Total Quality Management. Today, more than half the Fortune 1000 companies at least claim to incorporate TQM principles into their business.
Acceptance of the new culture comes slowly. Change is hard, and requires patience. But what is being attempted, it should be noted, is nothing less than a paradigm shift in the way organizations are managed. Deming was one prophet of this shift, and faith in his gospel is spreading.
The essential tenets:
Quality is defined by the customer. Not engineers or marketers or CEOs but those who use a product or service are the ones who determine whether it is of sufficient quality. And these can be customers within an organization as well as outside it.
Quality is promoted by leadership and vision. Customer-driven quality cannot be achieved by inspecting for defects after the product is made. To suffuse the entire work place, quality must be pushed by leaders able to articulate a clear vision of the organization's mission, goals and strategy.
Continuous improvement. If it ain't broke, fix it, argued Deming. This doesn't mean telling employees to work harder. It means that any system or process of work can be continually improved, and should be.
Employee participation. Work is best improved not according to managers' dictates, but by the experts closest to the work. Teams of people working together, typically across obsolete departmental and hierarchical lines, achieve quality if they have the tools and authority they need.
Data, data, data. Decisions should be based not on hunches or assumptions, but on hard data. Statistical tools offer a powerful means for measuring the effectiveness of work and the progress in improving it.
Deming's writings themselves - abbreviated in his infamous Fourteen Points and Seven Deadly Diseases and the Obstacles - are tortuous, in part because the cranky eccentric wasn't a clear writer. Most of his theories he propounded in seminars to business people. His ideas may also seem strange, though, because he had in mind something far beyond a collection of quality-control techniques.
Ultimately, Deming was after a spiritual transformation in the relations among people and between them and their work - and not just in business but in government, education and society. He abhorred hierarchy, restrictive work rules, wasted potential. Don't blame employees, he said, if America is losing creative competitiveness. Blame the system, and change it.
At the core of Deming's beliefs were the dignity of work, the effectiveness of cooperation, the power of reason, and the ultimate autonomy of the individual. Such qualities aren't passing fancies or statistical flukes in the progress of organizations.
by CNB