Very Positive Quiddity: W. Edwards Deming

Introduction by the Blog Author
Statistics are given a bad rap, one that belongs to the social sciences rather than to the arithmetic specialty of statistical studies. At its best statistics gives us new knowledge (such as modern contract bridge bidding conventions), conflict resolution that is more than just a substitute for war, and heart treatment as well as intensive care protocols that result in much more successful treatment to the point of resumption of normal life.

The blog will present several ingenious statisticians, starting with W. Edwards Deming, something of a grandmaster of this specialty. It is not an exaggeration to note that Deming made Japan a fearsome economic power after its defeat in the second World War.

The blog author notes that Deming was a giant of statistics and of management studies. He remained utterly unmentioned during the blog author’s studies as a candidate for Master of Business Administration in the mid-1970s, while many laughable ultimate failures were being heralded as great successes (such as atomic Tommy Wilcox at Crocker Bank and Henry Ford II). In those days, Deming’s name – W. Edwards Deming – was seldom used, and when it was mentioned (usually on television) it was misspoken as "Edward Deming."

The decline of American manufacturing in the 1980s necessarily brought Deming and his ideas back into the forefront of management thought.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American statistician, professor, author, lecturer and consultant. He is perhaps best known for the "Plan-Do-Check-Act" cycle popularly named after him. In Japan, from 1950 onwards, he taught top management how to improve design (and thus service), product quality, testing, and sales (the last through global markets) through various methods, including the application of statistical methods.

Deming made a significant contribution to Japan's later reputation for innovative high-quality products and its economic power. He is regarded as having had more impact upon Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage. Despite being considered something of a hero in Japan, he was only just beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at the time of his death. President Reagan awarded the National Medal of Technology to Deming in 1987. He received in 1988 the Distinguished Career in Science award from the National Academy of Sciences.

Overview
Deming's teachings and philosophy are best illustrated by examining the results they produced after they were adopted by Japanese industry, as the following example shows: Ford Motor Company was simultaneously manufacturing a car model with transmissions made in Japan and the United States. Soon after the car model was on the market, Ford customers were requesting the model with Japanese transmission over the US-made transmission, and they were willing to wait for the Japanese model. As both transmissions were made to the same specifications, Ford engineers could not understand the customer preference for the model with Japanese transmission. Finally, Ford engineers decided to take apart the two different transmissions. The American-made car parts were all within specified tolerance levels. On the other hand, the Japanese car parts were virtually identical to each other, and much closer to the nominal values for the parts – e.g., if a part was supposed to be one foot long, plus or minus 1/8 of an inch – then the Japanese parts were all within 1/16 of an inch. This made the Japanese cars run more smoothly and customers experienced fewer problems.

Deming received a BSc in electrical engineering from the University of Wyoming at Laramie (1921), an MS from the University of Colorado (1925), and a PhD from Yale University (1928). Both graduate degrees were in mathematics and physics. He had an internship at Bell Telephone Laboratories while studying at Yale. He later worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Census Department. While working under Gen. Douglas MacArthur as a census consultant to the Japanese government, he famously taught statistical process control methods to Japanese business leaders, returning to Japan for many years to consult and witness the economic growth he had predicted would come as a result of the application of techniques learned from Walter Shewhart at Bell Laboratories. Later, he became a professor at New York University while engaged as an independent consultant in Washington, D.C.

Deming was the author of Out of the Crisis (1982–1986) and The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (1993), which includes his System of Profound Knowledge and the 14 Points of Managment (described below). Deming played the flute and drums and composed music throughout his life, including sacred choral compositions and an arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner.

In 1993, He founded the W. Edwards Deming Institute in Washington, D.C., where the Deming Collection at the U.S. Library of Congress includes an extensive audiotape and videotape archive. The aim of the Institute is to foster understanding of the Deming System of Profound Knowledge to advance commerce, prosperity, and peace.

Early Life and Work
Deming was a professor of statistics at New York University's graduate school of business administration (1946–1993), and taught at Columbia University's graduate school of business (1988–1993). He also was a consultant for private business.

In 1927, Deming was introduced to Walter A. Shewhart of the Bell Telephone Laboratories by C.H. Kunsman of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Deming found great inspiration in the work of Shewhart, the originator of the concepts of statistical control of processes and the related technical tool of the control chart, , as Deming began to move toward the application of statistical methods to industrial production and management. Shewhart's idea of common and special causes of variation led directly to Deming's theory of management. Deming saw that these ideas could be applied not only to manufacturing processes, but also to the processes by which enterprises are led and managed. This key insight made possible his enormous influence on the economics of the industrialized world after 1950.
In 1936, he studied under Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher and Jerzy Neyman at University College, London, England.

Deming edited a series of lectures delivered by Shewhart at USDA, Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control, into a book published in 1939. One reason he learned so much from Shewhart, Deming remarked in a videotaped interview, was that, while brilliant, Shewhart had an "uncanny ability to make things difficult." Deming thus spent a great deal of time both copying Shewhart's ideas and devising ways to present them with his own twist.

Deming developed the sampling techniques that were used for the first time during the 1940 U.S. Census, formulating the Deming-Stephan algorithm for iterative proportional fitting in the process. During World War II, Deming was a member of the five-man Emergency Technical Committee. He worked with H.F. Dodge, A.G. Ashcroft, Leslie E. Simon, R.E. Wareham, and John Gaillard in the compilation of the American War Standards (American Standards Association Z1.1–3 published in 1942) and taught statistical process control (SPC) techniques to workers engaged in wartime production. Statistical methods were widely applied during World War II, but faded into disuse a few years later in the face of huge overseas demand for American mass-produced products.

Work in Japan
In 1947, Deming was involved in early planning for the 1951 Japanese Census. The Allied powers [sic, American control was exclusive] were occupying Japan, and he was asked by the United States Department of the Army to assist with the census. While in Japan, his expertise in quality control techniques, combined with his involvement in Japanese society, brought him an invitation from the Japanese Union of Scientists and
Engineers (JUSE).

JUSE members had studied Shewhart's techniques, and as part of Japan's reconstruction efforts, they sought an expert to teach statistical control. From June–August 1950, Deming trained hundreds of engineers, managers, and scholars in statistical process control (SPC) and concepts of quality. He also conducted at least one session for top management.(The list includes top Japanese industrialists the likes of Akio Morita, the cofounder of Sony Corp). Deming's message to Japan's chief executives: improving quality will reduce expenses while increasing productivity and market share. Perhaps the best known of these management lectures was delivered at the Mt. Hakone Conference Center in August 1950.

A number of Japanese manufacturers applied his techniques widely and experienced heretofore unheard-of levels of quality and productivity. The improved quality combined with the lowered cost created new international demand for Japanese products.

Deming declined to receive royalties from the transcripts of his 1950 lectures, so JUSE's board of directors established the Deming Prize (December 1950) to repay him for his friendship and kindness. Within Japan, the Deming Prize continues to exert considerable influence on the disciplines of quality control and quality management

A Summary of the Deming Philosophy
The philosophy of W. Edwards Deming has been summarized as follows:

"Dr. W. Edwards Deming taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations can increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs (by reducing waste, rework, staff attrition and litigation while increasing customer loyalty). The key is to practice continual improvement and think of manufacturing as a system, not as bits and pieces."

 

Deming Quotes [selected from the Wikipedia article by the blog author]

 

• "There is no substitute for knowledge."

• "In God we trust. All others must bring data."

• "The most important things cannot be measured."

• "Experience by itself teaches nothing."

• "Only the method counts."

• "You can expect what you inspect."

• "The problem is at the top. Management is the problem."

• Quality circles? "That’s all window dressing. That’s not fundamental."

• "Pride in work" should become "joy in work."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Deming
{notice how the "Edward Deming" mistake continues even to the spelling in the Wikipedia link}