Deming's 14 Points

Edwards W. Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant. 

Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical physics, he helped develop the sampling techniques still used by the U.S. Department of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.


In his book The New Economics for Industry, Government, and Education, Deming championed the work of Dr. Walter Shewhart, including Statistical Process Control, Operational Definitions, and what Deming called The Shewhart Cycle which had evolved into PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act). This was in response to the growing popularity of PDSA, which Deming viewed as tampering with the meaning of Shewhart's original work.


Deming is best known for his work in Japan after WWII, particularly his work with the leaders of Japanese industry. That work began in August 1950 at the Hakone Convention Center in Tokyo when Deming delivered a seminal speech on what he called Statistical Product Quality Administration.


Many in Japan credit Deming as the inspiration for what has become known as the Japanese post-war economic miracle of 1950 to 1960, when Japan rose from the ashes of war to become the second most powerful economy in the world in less than a decade, founded on the ideas Deming taught:

1. The problems facing manufacturers can be solved through cooperation, despite differences.
2. Marketing is not sales. It is the science of knowing what repeat customers think of a product, as well as whether, and why, they will buy it again.
3. Initial stages of design must include market research, applying statistical techniques for planning and inspecting samples.
4. The manufacturing process must be perfected.

Deming is best known in the United States for his 14 Points (Out of the Crisis, by Dr. W. Edwards Deming) and his system of thought he called the System of Profound Knowledge. 

The system comprises four components or "lenses" through which to view the world simultaneously:

1. Appreciating a system
2. Understanding variation
3. Psychology
4. Epistemology, the theory of knowledge

In 1981, NBC published a White Paper entitled, “If Japan Can, Why Can't We?” The Upper Management team at the Ford Motor Co., saw that show and contacted Deming to help them regain marketshare.

Deming's fee to help them was $50,000/day to which they agreed and spent a lot of time retooling their thought processes.

Through a collaborative effort between Ford and a Community College, a training program was developed that revolved 100% around what Deming suggested that they do. The two people responsible for developing this program formed PQ Systems and began marketing The Transformation of Amerian Industry Program in local communities by creating Centers of Excellence.

The first Community of Excellence Program to take place was in the Tri-Cities area of East TN which was a joint venture between TN Eastman (Johnson City) and Northeast State Community College (Blountville) in 1986. I got involved with the program in 1988 and was invited to TN to participate in a training program delivered by Dr. Deming... if my recollection serves me well, he was 92 years old at the time.

I was simply enthralled for 3 hours.

Shortly thereafter (1990), I was hired by Walters State Community College to set up Tennessee's second Community of Excellence and Center for Quality and Productivity Training.

My greatest difficulty was in getting management to accept Deming's 14 Points which are listed below.

Deming’s 14 Points on Quality Management, a core concept on implementing total quality management, is a set of management practices to help companies increase their quality and productivity.

1. Create constancy of purpose for improving products and services.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.
4. End the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier.
5. Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production and service.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Adopt and institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between staff areas.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the workforce.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.
12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate the annual rating or merit system.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.
14. Put everybody in the company to work accomplishing the transformation.

It was very difficult for managers to accept the fact that 100% (with some exceptions) was no longer necessary. Most managers did not see any different between themselves and leaders. Improving was completely foreign to them as if it ain't broke don't fix it was the prevailing mentality. T hey did not like eliminating quotas or the annual merit system by which employees were awarded raises. And, many of them still believed that FEAR drove motivation and productivity.

Twenty-five years later, TQM is no longer a cute thing to incorporate but has become an essential part of doing business and we now have the title of Black Belt for those who know SPC really well. It would be low-balling it if I said I taught 10,000 employees SPC as a component of a Statistical Problem Solving Class or what Ford referred to as their TOPS Program (Team Oriented Problem Solving).

However, there are very few companies that have adopted all 14 of these Points and it is a shame because Deming saw them as a complete package and if you accepted one, you accepted them all.

It is also interesting to note that Deming took his 14 points with him in 1950 when he was sent by this country to Japan to help them rebuild. He told the Japanese that they had to incorporate these 14 points and they did and are still using them today.

Maybe that is why we are still following in some areas rather than leading like we used to... Just thinking out loud.