Deming's 14 points of Management: Point #1

This is the first in a series of articles that I intend to write, in which, we explore the 14 points for management set forward by W. Edward Deming in his book entitled “Out of the Crisis”, which was originally published in 1986 according to Amazon (My copy has copyright 1982).

            The first of the 14 points is:

1)      Create constancy of purpose toward the improvement of product and service.

When Deming refers to constancy of purpose one imagines that there are at times shifting devotions and variable levels of dedication.  If one is in any organization that might be likened to a common garden variety American business, one will certainly be familiar with what the writer is referring to here. Most often people are very busy moving about in a frenzy taking care of the daily grind, without much care or concern for quality of product (or service) until there is a problem. Even when there is a problem, if the issue can be ignored, most often it will be. In general people don’t take time to improve quality until they are forced to do so (especially if it “is just a small problem”).

Management will go on looking at its daily issues and claim “we are to busy to deal with that” or “we just don’t have the resources to apply to resolving that issue” and my favorite “I don’t think we are ready for something that progressive”. This might go on for a period of time. Not looking at the potential magnitude of the “tiny” problems that could be fixed, preventing an emergency. No doubt, when one of these issues becomes a full grown non-conformance, that threatens short term profitability, management will be forced to act.

This is what seems to be the main idea behind point #1. There are two kinds of problems, short term and long term. Deming is suggesting that we must have constancy of purpose and plan for the long term. The short term is very simple. We are constantly forced to take care of those things, however the –in your face nature- of these things can easily distract even the most well meaning manager or supervisor from long term planning and proactive process improvement.

In the book Deming states “The next quarterly dividend is not as important as the existence of the company for the next 10, 20 or 30 years from now.” He suggests planning for the future with an aim on providing jobs. I think this is where many American companies failed of late. There have been so many jobs sent abroad with the sole purpose of improving quarterly earnings that the American worker has little faith or trust in our business leadership (and forget about respect).

Deming is able to sum up the strategy in a few words: Innovate, Invest in research and education, and constantly improve design of product (or service). With the emphasis on innovation Deming states, “One requirement for innovation is the faith that there will be a future. Innovation, the foundation of the future, can not thrive unless the top management have declared unshakeable commitment to quality and productivity.”

In the end, it will be up to us as leaders in business to determine what value we wish to bring to our communities, if any.

Deming's 14 Points

I recently commented on a guys post on LinkedIn. The topic was key points of management and he had stated that Deming's 14 points would be his first choice if he had to choose only three topics to teach.

My response:

"I am a huge fan of Deming also Tim. Out of the Crisis was one of the most insightful books that I have ever read. I found a tenth printing copy (from around 1990) at Half Price Books that looked like it had never been read. Inside was a laminated bookmark that had a GM logo, the 14 points one one side and the 7 diseases on the back. It made me wonder if the person who owned that book before me had any regrets about not reading it. I also thought about the possibility that that person was one of the many affected by the recent turn of events. It also reminded me what a shame it was that American businesses in general didn't take to heart some of these points."
"Hopefully that is beginning to change. I have recently seen signs that give me hope."

After writing this I thought to my self that it had been a long time since I read that book and I wondered how many of the points would seem familiar when if I read them now. This seemed to me to be a great topic for a new article. I will review and comment on Deming's 14 points in the weeks ahead, taking them one by one.