Dr. Deming - Chapter 1

As I mentioned before this storm has delayed my school from starting and so in the meantime I am reading up in an effort to be somewhat ahead. There are two books that, I believe, are the initial books to begin with: the obvious Cradle to Cradle and then this, Dr. Deming. The American Who Taught Japan About Quality.

Dr. Deming is (was?) a statistician during WWII who helped reform the US Census department into, what the book claims, is one of the most well run government departments. After the war he was invited to go to Japan and give a series of lectures to improve the quality of the Japanese product. Which, rumor has it they did. He then went on to work for Ford to do the same.

The first chapter dives into the essence of product quality. While I do have the latest version of this book, it is still very much dated (1990) and so I have to hold my "tongue" throughout some of it.

"One of the main reasons for the failure of quality consciousness to tae hold in this country was that management has never been taught its responsibility" (pg 4)

"As quality improves, costs go down and productivity increases. " (pg 6)

Demings Philosophy
* Calls for organizations to produce products and services that help people live better...By providing ever improving services and products, an organization develops loyal customers... Real profits are generated by loyal customers- not just satisfied customers. pg 8

Merit System
Deming is very much against the form of a merit system where employees are told to give 110%. He questions what happens when employees are already doing 110. "It is not physically possible for humans or machines operating in the same system to produce more with less. " (pg12)

The Price of Quality
"A simple response from too many managers is to make workers responsible for quality- if it's not right the first time, let the go. But the management by edict doesn't work. The belief that the work is responsible for the poor quality and low productivity of American firms is wrong......Workers don't determine 90 percent of the things responsible fo the quality of the product. Why hold the responsible for all the defects? Workers cannot change the system; only management can. " After that then " workers are a continual part of the improvement process. Toyota workers make on average 33 percent more suggestions per worker per year, 90 percent are implemented within weeks of submission." (pg 16) "People should be made to feel secure in their jobs."

I wanted to touch upon this last statement. As I read through this chapter I constantly think of my previous HR job at a manufacturing plant. I would refer to this plant as the slow sinking titanic. I jumped ship a year ago and word has it it is still going down. On the way down it is interesting to observe the dynamics of the personnel. On average I would say the majority of people do not like working there. They also know that they are coming to an end. But overall they stay. Why? Because this is all they know, holding on to the same job for over twenty years and with the constant pressure that they may be next on the chopping block, I think their self-esteem is weakening. They don't think they can do better elsewhere.

At the same time I'd like to comment that I think the company does work along the Deming lines of quality. I had witness often a factory worker who despite her soft knowlege of English will comment on how part of a product is weak. That message will be reviewed and passed on to the engineers next door. I always thought so highly of those factory workers, despite watching 6 of their coworkers get laid off suddenly, they still go into work dedicating themselves to a making a quality product, sure they talk enormous shit about the company, but when it comes to the product they put 110% into it.

That is it for now. I think this is working out. Much better than just underlining sentences in the book. I just hope I have the time to continue this.