Hi Neo, Deming, and management....ok.
Doctor Deming is the preeminent individual who stands for quality and what it means. He is a national folk hero in Japan and perhaps the leading speaker for the quality revolution in the world. After WWII all traces of statistical methods were largely lost in America in our effort to meet a surging demand of products, without regard to quality. We were the only industrial power left standing in-tack after the war. So the appetite for our products was amazing. Therefore, American managers and workers began doing whatever it could to push products out the door.
Had this management belief continued, surely the politics of the eighties and nineties would be thought of quite differently.
Economic success depends on organizations, known as businesses, executing! American management and workers are the greatest reason for the economic recovery in the last 20 years. I believe, it is no coincidence that this recovery coincided with American corporations adopting many of the practices of statistical process control that Doctor Deming taught the Japanese, and then brought back to our shores in 1980. For 13 years he gave American industry a dose of strong medicine in quality. His message is best outlined in his famous "14 Obligations of Top Management".
1. Create constancy of purpose for improvement of products and service.
2. Adopt a new philosophy; we are in a new economic age.
3. Cease dependence upon inspection as a way to achieve quality.
4. End the practice of awarding business based on price tag alone.
5. Constantly improve the process of planning, production, and service-this system includes people.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute improved supervision (leadership)
8. drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between departments.
10. Eliminate slogans/targets asking for increased productivity without providing methods.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas.
12. Remove barriers that stand between workers and their pride of workmanship; the same for all salaried people.
13. Institute programs for education and retraining.
14. Put all emphasis in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.
Today, most of these concepts seem like simple common sense to workers and managers in America. But in the late 70's, with friction between unions, workers and managers at an all time high, these were very radical concepts indeed. Ford, GM, and many other corporations had a huge "urgency to change" which sparked them into action, after learning of Japan's best kept secret.
Of course, Deming alone wasn't responsible for transplanting this knowledge back to America's shores. There were other guru's in the management field echoing many of the same thoughts. Joseph Juran, a colleague of Doctor Deming, was also a much sought after consultant and admired expert in Japan. And from the other side of the world, Peter Drucker was writing, teaching and influencing many corporate managers. As he still does today.
Japan, not known culturally for their individual hero's, had two people which built on Demings work and were very influential in the success of the Japanese quality revolution. Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa and Dr. Genichi Taguchi. Unfortunately, most of their writings and books have not been traslated into English. The few that have, give great credit to Dr. Deming for the concepts contained within. I suspect, in typical Japanese humble style, if you were able to hear all the stories about the management/quality revolution which literally changed the world of business, a lot of credit would go to those two individuals for Japan's success.
As far as Frederick Taylor is concerned, he also had a great influence on worldwide productivity. Especially in the first fifty years of the century. He is credited with a management method known as "Scientific management". The cornerstone of this system, is that trained workers would break down tasks and find the one "best" way to perform the task.
The use of these methods included time study, and motion study to determine specific work elements. With proper selection and training, workers using the "right" methods could double or triple their output and increase their wages 60% accordingly. The basic philosophy which has become passe' today, is that "management does the thinking, workers do the muscle work". Henry Ford built his model T using the scientific management method and was quite successful. Taylor wrote a classic test entitled "The principles of Scientific Management" in 1911. And many of the thoughts of the Taylor system of management are still in use today throughout the world.
Best, Michael |
