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20th Annual International Deming Research Seminar - March 3-4, 2014 (NY, USA).

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Attronarch:
Deming was way too conceptual, compared to other quality philosophers of that time, especially Juran and populist Crosby.

Tomos, here is summary of Mr. Deming, taken from my specialisation project and master thesis, condensed for forum:

William Edwards Deming is considered to be the pioneer and the founder of the quality movement. After Second World War he was involved in planning of the Japanese Census. At that time Japanese engineers were studying Shewart's methods and techniques. Since Deming was a student of Walter Andrew Shewhart, they decided to invite him help them rebuild the Japanese economy. Deming's work in Japan resulted in Japanese factories dominating the manufacturing sector with high quality and low cost. Ironically, his methods gained recognition in United States after his death. His major contributions to the quality management field are:


* The Fourteen Points
* The Deadly Diseases
* The System of Profound Knowledge
* Deming Wheel (PDCA is its offshot)
--- End quote ---

Now, the real value is in understanding his "System of Profound Knowledge", which is the basis for application of The Fourteen Points of transformation. With its four points it advocates holistic approach: appreciation of a system, knowledge of variation, theory of knowledge and knowledge of psychology. It was way ahead of its time, since scientific management was dominant managerial approach at that time.

tomos:
^thanks Attronarch :up:

Stoic Joker:
Deming was way too conceptual, compared to other quality philosophers of that time, especially Juran and populist Crosby.

Tomos, here is summary of Mr. Deming, taken from my specialisation project and master thesis, condensed for forum:

William Edwards Deming is considered to be the pioneer and the founder of the quality movement. After Second World War he was involved in planning of the Japanese Census. At that time Japanese engineers were studying Shewart's methods and techniques...
--- End quote ---
-Attronarch (February 20, 2014, 11:31 AM)
--- End quote ---

Oh, That guy. From what I recall of the story told when the factory I was working at years ago was being switched over to Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing. These techniques were indeed so new and revolutionary at the time that the current prevailing wisdom infested business establishment in the US had flat out laughed at him, and then basically foisted him on the Japanese after the war. Which then backfired rather handily for the Japanese and is much of the why the current top selling car in the US a currently the Toyota Corolla ... And has been for something like the past 12 years (which annoys me to no end).

IainB:
Deming was way too conceptual, compared to other quality philosophers of that time, especially Juran and populist Crosby. ...
-Attronarch (February 20, 2014, 11:31 AM)
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Yes, well, like Deming said, "...what he was telling us about was actually very simple, but that it seemed hard to understand as a lot of it seemed to go against conventional wisdom - what we had been taught or indoctrinated with - and so was difficult to accept/internalise."
Misconceptions abound.

IainB:
If one wanted to learn more about Deming and his approach to process improvement, a good place to start could well be The Deming Institute, because they seem to be focussed on Deming and are "just the facts m'am" and no BS.
A lot of the Deming material was formerly available via MIT (where he taught) and on the Internet in the public domain from there and from some other educational institutions. It seems to have all been expunged (though I have some copies) and put under the umbrella of The Deming Institute.
Their website currently has these sections:

* About The Institute
* Deming Today
* The Man
* Overview
* Theories & Teachings
* Photo Gallery
* Selected Articles
* Timeline
* Events
* News & Media
* Ways to Give
* Store__________________________

There are a lot of useful books and teaching materials for sale in the Store. Looks expensive. I'd suggest you could do worse than check on Amazon for used copies first, before buying from the store.
In section The Man, they say:
...The impact of his revolutionary ideas has been compared to those of Copernicus, Darwin and Freud. ...
__________________

--- End quote ---
Now that might be true, but some people (not me, you understand) might say that there is a very big difference between those great seekers after truth and Deming, in that the knowledge contained in the writings and speech of Copernicus, Darwin and Freud is freely accessible, is available for free, and is not locked up in commercial copyright by some parasitic self-appointed authority and moneygrubbing organisation acting as keeper of the keys and that extorts a small ransom from any student as the price for such important knowledge/education - but I couldn't possibly comment.

As a mathematician/statistician, Deming was indeed a seeker after truth, and over his lifetime he contributed a great deal to knowledge in the domain of operations research.
He was scientific and pragmatic, advocating the use of simple statistical control charts (as per Shewhart) as the way to understand a business process. (This was where an understanding of simple variance analysis proved so useful.) It was basically "Find out for yourself. Study the process using statistical control charts and you will find the observations are the process talking to you, telling you about itself, and you can use the data to understand and prove everything that happens in the process. Then use the PDSA to improve the process."

Some relevant quotes:
"In god we trust, all others bring data."
"Action that is not based on sound theory/good practice is irrational by definition."

--- End quote ---

If you wanted to know what the Japanese thought (and still think) of Deming's contribution to their country and its huge economic development and success, look up the history of JUSE and The Deming Prize, and do some research on what that flower-shaped thingy is that Deming has on a sash he wears over his dinner jacket in one of the photos in that small collage in The Man.

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