I was giving a presentation on my journey in quality and the automotive industry to a university class that was studying quality methods the other day. I asked, does everyone know who Dr. Deming was? And nobody knew. I was describing that when I was in engineering school, there were no classes on quality—or management for that matter. Somehow though, my first job after graduation landed me in the quality engineering department in an electronics manufacturing plant. I knew nothing about quality, luckily, I was part of hundreds (maybe more) of people at General Motors that were able to attend a four or five-day simulcast with Dr. Deming. I was given his book “Out of the Crisis.”

What he said made a lot of sense. After the class, during work, I went with many other engineers and some line workers to weekly classes (for over a year) to learn statistical process control and to apply it in projects.

At this time, American companies “had the gift of desperation.” They were beaten and losing market share fast. These companies studied, and studied and tried to apply what Dr. Deming was teaching. I was in one such company.

This article pulls together some resources to explain Dr. Deming’s teachings. His teachings shaped how I handled my career.

“If you can’t measure it, you don’t know anything about it,” Deming used to say.

Lessons from the Red Bead Experiment

The Red Beads are housed in a display at ASQ World Headquarters – I love seeing them when I visit.

Dr. Deming said, “A transformation must take place in American industry or it will continue on the decline until the style of American management changes...and they don’t know what to do. Ninety-eight percent don’t know there is a problem or there is anything they can do.”

Seven Deadly Diseases of Western Management (the last two were added after this video):

• Lack of constancy of purpose
• Emphasis on short-term profits
• Annual rating of performance “it is purely a lottery”
• Mobility of management
• Use of visible figures only
• Excessive medical costs
• Excessive legal damage awards swelled by lawyers working on contingency fees

The following is pulled from Quincy by ASQ: Your AI-Powered Quality Assistant | ASQ: W. Edwards Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) is a foundational framework for modern quality management and leadership. It consists of four interdependent components that, together, equip leaders and organizations to navigate complex, variable, and human-centered systems.

1. Theory of Systems
2. Knowledge of Variation
3. Theory of Knowledge
4. Psychology

Why SoPK Matters

• Deming’s SoPK is especially relevant in today’s world of complexity, unpredictability, and rapid change.
• It provides a holistic approach to management that integrates systems thinking, statistical reasoning, learning, and human factors.

Applying SoPK helps organizations make better decisions, improve quality, and create sustainable value for all stakeholders.  

The following was pulled Dr. Deming's 14 Points for Management - The W. Edwards Deming Institute

Dr. W. Edwards Deming offered 14 key principles for management to follow to improve the effectiveness of a business or organization. The principles were first presented in his book “Out of the Crisis.” Below is the condensation of the 14 Points for Management, but these alone will not improve your business.

As noted by Dr. Deming in “The New Economics,” “My 14 Points for Management follow naturally as application of the System of Profound Knowledge for transformation from the present style of management to one of optimization.”

1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.
2. 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.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.
4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management needs an overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.
8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.
10. 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 workforce.
11. 
    
1. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.
1. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.
12. 
    
1. 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.
1. 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 objective.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.

Deming, W. Edwards. Out of The Crisis (MIT Press) (pp. 23-24)

DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THE 14 POINTS TO SHARE!

A few favorite Deming quotes

Defects are not free. Somebody makes them, and gets paid for making them.

Deming, W. Edwards. (2000). Out of the Crisis – 2nd Edition. Kindle Edition. The MIT Press. , page 9

Learning is not compulsory; it’s voluntary. Improvement is not compulsory; it’s voluntary. But to survive, we must learn. Deming The Way We Knew Him: The Way We Knew Him by Frank Voehl , 

Frank Voehl quoting Deming from a personal recording of the Deming 4-Day Seminar “Quality Productivity, and Competitive Position”, Newport Beach, CA February 24-28, 1986

And to add a little humor,

(153) The Humor of W. Edwards Deming | A (Mostly) Serious Man Gets Big Laughs - YouTube