Deming philosophy

Mann, N.R. (1985), The Keys to Excellence The Story of the Deming Philosophy, Prestwick Books, Los Angeles, CA. 

Total quality management is an approach that seeks to improve the quality of the value proposition that the organisation delivers to the customer in the most effective and efficient way possible. Based on the ideas of continuous improvement it requires the whole organisation to embrace the concept and cannot be undertaken by a department or group of managers alone. It requires the company to work as one team to focus on quality improvement in all systems and processes. Some times referred to as the Deming philosophy. 

During the course of my career in safety management, I have seen companies try to improve their safety culture in a variety of ways. Some of these approaches included the Deming Philosophy, the Safety Observer Program, Total Quality Management, and Behavior-Based Safety. 

William E. Deming was an American statistician who was distinguished in Japan and only after 30 years did America and the western countries realize his prophetic philosophy. 

So, Ford hired Deming. In the period from 1979 to 1982, Ford was in trouble. In 1982, the company incurred 3 billion in losses. After applying Deming s philosophy, by 1986 Ford had become the most profitable American auto company. In a letter to Autoweek Magazine,... 

Deming s philosophy spawned TQM. TQM is a cross-functional approach to minimize waste and improve quality to meet or exceed quality expectations. Deming proved that when people and organizations focus primarily on costs, that the cost of a product tends to rise and quality declines over time. Instead, he believed that organizations need to focus on the knowledge of variation and reducing deviation. 

Constancy of purpose. The goal is to 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. He believed that we are now in a new economic age. To compete, Deming taught that Western management must awaken to the challenge, learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change. 

The above points go hand-in-hand with the Total Quality Management (TQM) concept. TQM is a philosophy and system for doing business originally developed and promoted by Dr. W. Edward Deming. 

Total quality mani ement (TQM) A philosophy and set of guiding principles required by any organization attempting to compete in toda/s global-based economy, built upon the work of Deming, Juran, and others. 

It is important to note that not all 14 points may fit the safety culture or philosophy of your organization. One must adopt a safety culture that fits an organization s specific needs. Figure 16-13 compares Dr. Deming s 14 points with a safety culture change. One of the problems is that people forget his seven deadly sins [7]. 

It runs contrary to the philosophy of quality efforts. These problems result in reliance on punishment going against the philosophy of current quality improvement efforts. Edwards Deming, one of the gurus of the quality movement, exhorted companies to drive fear out of the workplace and remove barriers to pride in workmanship. Overuse of punishment is one of those barriers. In an environment motivated by fear, employees work because they have to, not because they want to. When we do something because of threats, nagging, or criticism, we seldom feel a sense of accomplishment or pride in the quality of our work performance. 

The theory of knowledge, related to the philosophy of science, is critical to Dr. Deming s approach to business. It defines the rules of how knowledge is acquired. Deming asserts, quite properly, that knowledge is based on theory. A theory is a model of reality that allows us to predict outcomes. To qualify as a theory, the model must make testable predictions, and the predictions must be capable of being wrong. That is why after-the-fact explanations are not necessarily theories. They are only theories if they make future predictions that can be tested. 

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