Editing W. Edwards Deming (section)

== Academic contributions ==
The philosophy of W. Edwards Deming has been summarized as follows:

{{blockquote|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."<ref>[http://www.dharma-haven.org/five-havens/deming.htm Dr. Deming's Management Training.] Accessed: 2006-06-18.</ref>}}

=== The Deming System of Profound Knowledge ===
{{Over-quotation|section|date=December 2012}}
"The prevailing style of management must undergo transformation. A system cannot understand itself. The transformation requires a view from outside. The aim of this chapter is to provide an outside view—a lens—that I call a system of profound knowledge. It provides a map of theory by which to understand the organizations that we work in."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Deming |first=W. Edwards |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1029771304 |title= The New Economics: For Industry, Government, Education |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-262-03900-0 |edition=Third |publisher=The MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |oclc=1029771304}}</ref>

"The first step is transformation of the individual. This transformation is discontinuous. It comes from understanding of the system of profound knowledge. The individual, transformed, will perceive new meaning to his life, to events, to numbers, to interactions between people."

"Once the individual understands the system of profound knowledge, he will apply its principles in every kind of relationship with other people. He will have a basis for judgment of his own decisions and for transformation of the organizations that he belongs to."

Deming advocated that all managers need to have what he called a System of Profound Knowledge, consisting of four parts:
# ''Appreciation of a system'': understanding the overall processes involving suppliers, producers, and customers (or recipients) of goods and services (explained below);
# ''Knowledge of variation'': the range and causes of variation in quality, and use of statistical sampling in measurements;
# ''Theory of knowledge'': the concepts explaining knowledge and the limits of what can be known.
# ''Knowledge of psychology'': concepts of human nature.
He explained, "One need not be eminent in any part nor in all four parts in order to understand it and to apply it. The 14 points for management in industry, education, and government follow naturally as application of this outside knowledge, for transformation from the present style of Western management to one of optimization."

"The various segments of the system of profound knowledge proposed here cannot be separated. They interact with each other. Thus, knowledge of psychology is incomplete without knowledge of variation.

"A manager of people needs to understand that all people are different. This is not ranking people. He needs to understand that the performance of anyone is governed largely by the system that he works in, the responsibility of management. A psychologist that possesses even a crude understanding of variation as will be learned in the experiment with the [[Red Beads]] (Ch. 7) could no longer participate in refinement of a plan for ranking people."<ref name="new">Deming, W. Edwards. 1993. ''The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education'', second edition.</ref>

The ''Appreciation of a system'' involves understanding how interactions (i.e., feedback) between the elements of a system can result in internal restrictions that force the system to behave as a single organism that automatically seeks a [[steady state]]. It is this steady state that determines the output of the system rather than the individual elements. Thus it is the structure of the organization rather than the employees, alone, which holds the key to improving the quality of output.

The ''Knowledge of variation'' involves understanding that everything measured consists of both "normal" variation due to the flexibility of the system and of "special causes" that create defects. Quality involves recognizing the difference to eliminate "special causes" while controlling normal variation. Deming taught that making changes in response to "normal" variation would only make the system perform worse. Understanding variation includes the mathematical certainty that variation will normally occur within six [[standard deviation]]s of the mean.

The System of Profound Knowledge is the basis for application of Deming's famous 14 Points for Management, described below.

=== Key principles ===
Deming offered 14 key principles to managers for transforming business effectiveness. The points were first presented in his book ''Out of the Crisis'' (p.&nbsp;23–24).<ref name="crisis">{{cite book |last=Deming |first=W. Edwards |title=Out of the Crisis |url=https://archive.org/details/outofcrisisquali00demi |url-access=registration |year=1986 |publisher=MIT Press|bibcode=1986oucr.book.....D }}</ref> Although Deming does not use the term in his book, it is credited with launching the [[Total Quality Management]] movement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.realisation.com.au/site2/Articles/Deming%2014%20points.htm|title=Deming's 14 Points|first=Phil|last=Cohen|publisher=Realisation|access-date=June 25, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110218101907/http://www.realisation.com.au/site2/Articles/Deming%2014%20points.htm|archive-date=February 18, 2011|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

# Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive, to stay in business and to provide jobs.
# Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.
# Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for massive inspection by building quality into the product in the first place.
# End the practice of awarding business on the basis of a price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move towards a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
# [[Continual improvement process|Improve constantly and forever]] the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
# Institute training on the job.
# Institute leadership (see Point 12 and Ch. 8 of ''Out of the Crisis''). The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.
# Drive out [[Culture of fear#In the workplace|fear]], so that everyone may work effectively for the company. (See Ch. 3 of ''Out of the Crisis'')
# Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and usage that may be encountered with the product or service.
# Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for [[zero defects]] and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
## Eliminate work standards ([[Vitality curve|quotas]]) on the factory floor. Substitute with leadership.
## Eliminate [[management by objective]]. Eliminate [[management by numbers]] and numerical goals. Instead substitute with leadership.
# Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to [[pride of workmanship]]. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
# Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, ''inter alia'', abolishment of the annual or merit [[Performance rating (work measurement)|rating]] and of [[management by objectives]] (See Ch. 3 of ''Out of the Crisis'').
# Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
# Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.

"Massive training is required to instill the courage to break with tradition. Every activity and every job is a part of the process."<ref>{{cite book|last=Reilly |first=Norman B. |year=1994 |title=Quality: What Makes it Happen? |publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold |page=[https://archive.org/details/qualitywhatmakes00reil/page/31 31] |isbn=0-442-01635-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/qualitywhatmakes00reil/page/31 }}</ref>

====PDCA myth====
It is a common myth to credit Plan-Do-Check-Act ([[PDCA]]) to Deming. Deming always referred to the Cycle as the [[Walter A. Shewhart|Shewhart]] Cycle for Continuous Learning and Improvement.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Deming|title=PDSA Cycle – The W. Edwards Deming Institute|url=https://deming.org/explore/pdsa/|access-date=2020-12-25|website=deming.org/|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Personal letter to Ronald D. Moen|last=Deming|first=W. Edwards|date=November 1990}}</ref>

In the article on "Clearing up myths about the Deming cycle and seeing how it keeps evolving", by Ron Moen and Clifford Norman, they refer to the first origins of PDCA in the work of [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo]] on Designed Experiments and [[Francis Bacon]]'s work on Inductive learning. The basic idea of Scientific method being – making a hypothesis, conducting experiment, learning about hypothesis through experiment results. Later the idea seems to have inspired [[C. I. Lewis|C I Lewis]] and through him to [[Walter A. Shewhart|Shewhart]], giving a clear account of evolution period from 17th century.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Deming|title=The History and Evolution of the PDSA Cycle – The W. Edwards Deming Institute|url=https://deming.org/the-history-and-evolution-of-the-pdsa-cycle/|access-date=2020-12-25|website=deming.org/|language=en-US}}</ref>

Deming credits a 1939 work by [[Walter A. Shewhart|Shewhart]] for the idea and over time eventually developed the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, which has the idea of deductive and inductive learning built into the learning and improvement cycle. Deming finally published the PDSA cycle in 1993, in ''The New Economics'' on p.&nbsp;132.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pruitt |first1=W. Frazier |last2=Imam |first2=S.M. Waqas |title=Expert Answers: April 2021 {{!}} ASQ |website=asq.org |volume=54 |issue=4 |page=6 |url=https://asq.org/quality-progress/articles/expert-answers-april-2021?id=eb030f131fdc4da78030a62e57a97f68}}</ref>

=== Seven Deadly Diseases ===
The "Seven Deadly Diseases" include:
# Lack of constancy of purpose
# Emphasis on short-term profits
# Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of performance
# Mobility of management
# Running a company on visible figures alone
# Excessive medical costs
# Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers who work for contingency fees

"A Lesser Category of Obstacles" includes:
# Neglecting long-range planning
# Relying on technology to solve problems
# Seeking examples to follow rather than developing solutions
# Excuses, such as "our problems are different"
# The mistaken belief that management skills can be taught in classes<ref>{{cite book |title=The Deming Management Method |last=Walton |first=Mary |publisher=Penguin Group |year=1986 |page=94}}</ref>
# Reliance on quality control departments rather than management, supervisors, managers of purchasing, and production workers
# Placing blame on workforces who are responsible for only 15% of mistakes while the system designed by management is responsible for 85% of the unintended consequences
# Relying on quality inspection rather than improving product quality

Deming's advocacy of the [[Plan–do–study–act|Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle]], his 14 Points and Seven Deadly Diseases have had tremendous influence outside manufacturing and have been applied in other arenas, such as in the relatively new field of [[sales process engineering]].<ref name="Selden">{{cite book |title=Sales Process Engineering: A Personal Workshop |last=Selden |first=Paul H. |publisher=ASQ Quality Press|location=Milwaukee, WI|year=1997|pages=60–74}}</ref>

=== Analysis of enzyme kinetic data ===
Deming's collaboration with Hans Lineweaver and Dean Burk<ref>{{cite journal
| author = Lineweaver H, Burk D, Deming, W E
| journal =  J. Amer. Chem. Soc.
| volume = 56
| pages = 225–230
| title = The dissociation constant of nitrogen-nitrogenase in ''Azobacter''
| year = 1934
| issue = 1
| doi = 10.1021/ja01316a071
| bibcode = 1934JAChS..56..225L
}}</ref> is possibly the least known of his work as a statistician, but it is relevant to what has become the most highly cited paper<ref>Almost 14000 citations by March 2023</ref> ever published in the ''Journal of the American Chemical Society'',<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Lineweaver, H  |author2=Burk, D. | year = 1934 | title = The Determination of Enzyme Dissociation Constants | journal = J. Amer. Chem. Soc. | volume = 56 | pages = 658–666 | doi = 10.1021/ja01318a036 | issue = 3|bibcode=1934JAChS..56..658L }}</ref> which was written after the authors had consulted Deming about the proper way to analyze their data. Although they are credited with the introduction of the ''double-reciprocal plot'', in which the reciprocal rate is plotted against the reciprocal substrate concentration, they estimated the kinetic parameters by weighted linear regression with weights of the fourth power of the rates, as recommended by Deming. Unfortunately this (essential) part of their approach was quickly forgotten.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}