William Edwards Deming

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William Edwards Deming

William Edwards Deming , incorrectly also Walter Edwards Deming , (born October 14, 1900 in Sioux City , Iowa , † December 20, 1993 in Washington, DC ) was an American physicist, statistician and pioneer in the field of quality management . As a student of Walter A. Shewhart , the founder of statistical process control , he developed the process-oriented view of the activities of a company from the 1940s , which later found its way into the various quality standards and quality management teachings.

Life

Deming's parents were William Albert Deming and Pluma Irene Edwards. Shortly after the birth of William Edwards (he was the maiden name of his mother as a nickname, to distinguish him from his father, William was called) drew the Deming family to Powell ( Wyoming ), where William Edwards with his brother Robert and sister Elizabeth spent his childhood. His father worked as an insurance agent, real estate broker and lawyer , his mother as a piano teacher.

In 1923 Deming married the teacher Agnes Belle. The couple adopted a daughter, Dorothy. Agnes Belle died in 1930, In 1932 Deming married Lola Shupe, a mathematician . The daughters Diana (* 1934) and Linda (* 1942) emerged from this marriage.

Deming attended the University of Wyoming (B.S. in Engineering 1921), University of Colorado (M.S. in mathematics and mathematical physics 1925) and Yale University , where he received his doctorate in mathematical physics ( PhD ) in 1928 . He then taught at various universities, worked as a mathematical physicist for the United States Department of Agriculture (United States Department of Agriculture, 1927-1939) and was a statistical advisor to the US Office of Population Statistics (US Bureau of Census). From 1946 to 1993 he was a professor of statistics at the New York University Graduate School of Business Administration; he also taught at Columbia University . From 1946 he also worked as a consultant for private companies.

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In 1950 General Douglas MacArthur brought him to Japan as a statistician and quality expert . Deming's findings went largely unnoticed in the United States. That did not change after Ishikawa Kaoru Deming made it possible in 1950 to make his findings known to top managers in Japan. As a result, a Japanese company was awarded the so-called Deming Prize for particularly high quality in production for the first time in 1951 . Deming's ideas also fell on fertile ground very early on in the Toyota production system .

Deming and his findings were not revealed until June 24, 1980 after an NBC documentary broadcast entitled If Japan Can ... Why Can't We? perceived in the USA , at a time when large parts of the American consumer goods industry had been literally overrun by Japanese competition due to better quality.

There are also comparable ideas in Europe: see European Quality Award and Ludwig Erhard Award .

Deming summarized his findings in a 14-point program for better management, 7 hurdles for implementing the new philosophy and the 7 deadly diseases of a management system. In addition to the Deming reaction chain, the description of the PDCA cycle ( Plan Do Check Act ) is ascribed to Deming. Deming himself pointed out, however, that Walter A. Shewhart was the first to describe it.

"Experience, without theory, teaches management nothing about what to do to improve quality and competitive position."

"Experience without theory teaches management nothing about what to do to improve quality and competitive position."

- W. Edwards Deming

14 points of the management program

Deming defined (based on Henri Fayol's 14 management principles) 14 points of the management program as follows.

  1. Create an immovable corporate goal in the direction of constant product and service improvement.
  2. Apply the new philosophy to ensure economic stability.
  3. Eliminate the need for and reliance on full controls to achieve quality.
  4. End the practice of doing business on the lowest price basis .
  5. Constantly looking for the causes of problems in order to constantly improve all systems in production and service as well as all other activities in the company (continuous improvement) .
  6. Create modern methods of training and repetitive training directly at the workplace and for the work task.
  7. Use modern leadership practices that focus on helping people (and machines) do their jobs better.
  8. Eliminate the atmosphere of fear .
  9. Eliminate the delimitation of the individual departments from each other.
  10. Eliminate the use of appeals, posters and admonitions.
  11. Eliminate performance targets that set numerical quotas (standards) and goals for workers.
  12. Remove all barriers that prevent workers and managers from being proud of their work.
  13. Create a thorough training program and encourage self-improvement for each individual.
  14. Clearly define the permanent commitment of top management to constant improvement of quality and productivity.

Seven deadly diseases of a management system

  1. Lack of an established organizational purpose
  2. Emphasis on short-term profit
  3. Annual evaluation , performance appraisal, personal appraisal system
  4. High fluctuation in the organization management, jumping from company to company
  5. Use of parameters by the management - without taking into account those parameters that are unknown or not quantifiable
  6. Excessive social costs
  7. Excessive costs from product liability judgments

Deming reaction chain

The Deming reaction chain is about hard facts, i.e. about costs and not about the company's image (this is only added today in the expanded quality management concept ).

  1. Quality improvement, thereby
  2. Productivity improvement, thereby
  3. Cost reduction in the manufacture of the product, thereby
  4. Price reduction, thereby
  5. Increase in market share , thereby
  6. Securing the company's position, thereby
  7. Securing jobs, and thereby ultimately
  8. Securing profit

The basic attitude required for this is:

  • Every employee stands for quality in their area of ​​responsibility.
  • There is no one who is not involved with quality.
  • Quality is technology and mindset.

Red pearl attempt

The red pearl experiment is an example devised by Deming for a work process in which the workers have no influence on the result of their work and the achievement of the goal is unlikely, but are nevertheless rewarded or punished for this result. The experiment is also known under the English name Red Beads .

Publications

Web links

swell

  1. ^ University of Wyoming, Profiles of Notable Alumni: W. Edwards Deming - 1929
  2. ↑ Swiss Deming Institute ( Memento from June 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ In Crainer, Stuart: Key Management Ideas - Thinkers That Changed The Management World , Prentice Hall, London 1998
personal data
SURNAME Deming, William Edwards
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist, statistician and economic pioneer in the field of quality management
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Sioux City , Iowa
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1993
Place of death Washington, DC