A System of Profound Knowledge LO21790

John Zavacki (jzavacki@greenapple.com)
Tue, 1 Jun 1999 05:25:24 -0400

I have "borrowed" this from the Deming Institute, in the hope of having it
understood in terms of organizational learning. Dr. Deming's teachings
are simple and elegant. His starting points for Profound Knowledge can be
found at http://www.deming.org/deminghtml/wedi.html

Shortly before his death, Dr. Deming worked with Peter Senge. In a
keynote address to ASQ, Senge paraphrased a Deming classic: When asked
how long we have to institute the new philosophy, Dr. Deming replied:
As long as you live, young man. No longer.

Everything below this sentence belongs to the Deming Institute.

The following is excerpted from Chapter 2 of Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards
Deming:
The 14 points for management (Out of the Crisis, Ch.2) in industry,
education and government follow naturally as application of this outside
knowledge, for transformation from the present Western style of management
to one of optimization.

Condensation of the 14 Points for Management
Origin of the 14 points.
The 14 points are the basis for transformation of American industry. It will
not suffice merely to solve problems, big or little. Adoption and action on
the 14 points are a signal that the management intend to stay in business
and aim to protect investors and jobs. Such a system formed the basis for
lessons for top management in Japan in 1950 and in subsequent years (see pp.
1-6 and the Appendix).
The 14 points apply anywhere, to small organizations as well as to large
ones, to the service industry as well as to manufacturing. They apply to a
division within a company.

The 14 points.
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 (see Point 12 and Ch. 8). The aim of supervision
should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job.
Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of
production workers.
8.. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company
(see Ch. 3).
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 work force.
a.. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute
leadership.
b.. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers,
numerical goals. Substitute leadership.
11.. 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.
12.. 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 (see Ch. 3).
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.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.......

John Zavacki
jzavacki@greenapple.com

-- 

"John Zavacki" <jzavacki@greenapple.com>

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