| The Little Blue Book Quotations of Dr. Deming (First Edition) This is the First Edition Return to Deming Index (Square Format) Click here to go to the 1994 Edition Drive out fear. ========================================= Dr. Deming’s Quotes from the First Edition (Square Blue Book, 1992) References: these quotations come from lectures given by Dr. Deming. Notes taken by R.S. Conger. Drive out fear. The Orchestra An orchestra is an example of a system that most people can understand. In a 140-piece orchestra, everybody supports the other 139. One is not there to play a solo, one is not to play as loud as one can to attract attention. The individual person is there to support the other 139. The job of the conductor is to optimize their talents and abilities. Each person, each group, is a component of the whole system. That component – any group, anybody – should be judged by its contribution to the system, not for its individual profit or gain. Optimization is a process of orchestrating the efforts of all components toward achievement of the stated aim. Optimize There must be a method to achieve an aim. Management must optimize of the system. Optimization of a system is the first job of a leader. Recognize that all people are different. Try to fit each one into what one does best, into what each takes joy in doing. Instead of doing it the way we have always done it, do what is best for the whole system. The greatest waste in America is failure to use the abilities of people. Cooperation In place of competition for high grades, high ratings, to be number one, there should be cooperation on problems of common interest between people, divisions, companies, agencies, governments, countries. Click here to learn about activities to encourage co0operative learning www.epps.com United We Solve, a workbook to promote cooperative learning Math strategies for cooperation: www.math-success.com The result will in time be better students in science, literature, and the arts, innovation, technology, greater service, expansion of the market, greater material reward for everyone. There will be joy in work and learning. My theory of management is based on optimization of a system whereby everybody gains – everybody gains…. (repeat with a deep voice for emphasis): EVERYBODY GAINS. Obligation A company that is healthy, doing well, has the greatest obligation to improve, thus to contribute to the economic welfare of itself and to the rest of us. Management has the obligation to focus attention on common causes of variability and wrong average level. Common causes of variability are often as important as specific causes. This is why management must continually accept the responsibility to find common causes, and to eliminate them if economically feasible. Almost everyone, including managers who ought to know better, adjusts to the result, despite the advice [of experts]. They are only doing their job. Their results are way off to the Milky Way. Optimization Organization of a system should be the basis for negotiation. Whoever goes into negotiation to defend rights is already licked. … Through optimization of the system, you gain more than by any other way. Any group should have as its aim optimization over time of the larger system that the group operates in. Long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks transformation. The timid and the fainthearted and people who expect quick results are doomed to disappointment. Productivity Without a cultural revolution in management, can anyone guarantee that job security for the rank and file would be enough to produce high productivity and product quality? Paper profits do not make bread. Improvements of quality and productivity do. They make a contribution to better material living for all people, here and everywhere. Without theory, there is no way to use information that comes to us on the instant. Knowledge Knowledge comes from theory. Wisdom is knowledge used for the common aim. Without a theory, experience teaches nothing. The knowledge required depends in large part on theory of variation, interaction of forces, and operational definitions. Any sample of observations, any experience, must have its frame – its system frame, its theory. Goals A goal that lies beyond the means of accomplishment – beyond the capacity of the system – will lead to discouragement, frustration, demoralization. No capacity can be measured until the system is stabilized, by operationally defined criteria, in communicable terms. Standards An operational definition is one that is communicable, translates a concept into a test and a criterion: to have meaning for business or legal purposes and can only be stated in statistical terms. … likewise a standard for safety, reliability or performance. The requirements of industry are more exacting than the requirements of pure science. The consumer requires month by month ever greater and greater safety, expects better and better performance of manufactured articles. The manufacturer has the same problems. These problems cannot be understood, cannot ever be stated, nor can the effect of any alleged solution be evaluated without the aid of statistical theory and methods. Quality Quality begins at the top … quality of the product and of the services can be no better than the intent of the top management. The only way a company can experience success would be for the top management to be committed to the course of action. Quality is like good blood. Money cannot buy it. It is not for sale – quality or good blood. Innovation Management of a system is action based on prediction. The moral is that it is necessary to innovate, to predict the needs of a customer, to give more. But where does innovation come from? No customer asked for electric lights, telegraph or telephone. No customer asked for the automobile. “We have horses!” No customer asked for pneumatic tires. Tires are made of rubber. It is silly to thin of riding on air. People thought Harvey Firestone had lost his mind… No customer ever asked for integrated circuits, pocket radio or the facsimile. Competition Economists have led us down the wrong road. They have taught us adversarial competition as the solution. Trade wards and competition result in the same thing. In system terms, the public loses. Unforeseeable, the heaviest losses are unknowable…. and they are the very ones that must be managed. The chances of successfully improving our position in the future, under the present system of management, is nonexistent. Three Questions Where do you want to be five years ahead? How are you going to get there? By what method? ======================================== If you have a favorite quote that doesn't appear here, please send it to the editors. Sundial Press PO Box 30555 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33303 analyst@comcast.net Links about Dr. Deming http://www.rubicontraininguk.com/purchasing%20articles.htm#W.%20Edwards%20Deming From th Rubicon web site: Dr. Deming lectured in Japan in 1950. Together with Joseph Juran, he is credited with instilling an awareness of the importance of quality into Japanese management practices. Deming has a 14-point plan for improving quality, shown in the below, that focuses on continuously improving the process. Deming's 14-Point Plan for Quality (Reworded by Rubicon Training) 1. Create constancy of purpose for improvement. 2. Adopt the new approach. 3. End reliance on inspection as the sole quality control tool, 4. Stop selecting vendors on the basis of price alone. 5. Continuously improve every aspect of production. 6. Train the workers. 7. Lead. 8. Eliminate fear. 9. Eliminate line/staff communication barriers. 10. Eliminate slogans. 11. Eliminate production quotas. 12. Eliminate barriers to pride of person. 13. Institute self-improvement programs. 14. Implement this program universally. The first edition of the Little Blue Book was square in format and was organized around themes. It is reproduced above. If you want to print this page in small pages, click HERE The 1994 edition was organized alphabetically by topic. If you want to see the 1994 edition, click HERE |
| The First Edition 1992 |
| Print this version to get a square book to carry around. |