Deming Philosophy

Series of wooden gears in a horizontal line, each held by a person's fingers.

Why Did the Management System Allow the Failure?

By John Hunter / August 8, 2022 / 0 Comments

In this guest post, John Hunter explores the questions management should ask when there’s a failure or problem, rather than blaming an individual.

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Image of Deming Chain Reaction - text: Improve Quality —> Costs decrease because of less rework, fewer mistakes, fewer delays, snags, better use of machine-time and materials —> Productivity Improves —> Capture the market with better quality and lower price —> Stay in Business —> Provide jobs and more jobs

Using Customer Feedback to Drive Continual Improvement

By John Hunter / July 18, 2022 / 0 Comments

In this guest post, John Hunter focuses on how improving the quality of your products or services cuts costs.

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Part of a compass sitting on map grid lines, in yellow and sepia tones.

Beginning the Deming Journey: a Newbie’s Perspective

By Christina Dragonetti / July 12, 2022 / 4 Comments

New to The Deming Institute, Christina Dragonetti describes the beginning of her Deming journey, reflects on a previous employer’s disaster when they only went halfway with Deming, and offers examples and tips for others early in their Deming journey.

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image with text - Deming’s First Theorem: “Nobody gives a hoot about profits.”

Russell Ackoff: Solving Problems with an Appreciation for Systems

By John Hunter / July 5, 2022 / 0 Comments

In this guest post, John Hunter revisits a 2004 video of Russell Ackoff, and the lessons we can still learn from him.

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photo of Eizaburo Nishibori, W. Edwards Deming and Sigeiti Moriguti

Some New Principles of Management: Deming’s 1978 Speech in Tokyo

By John Hunter / June 2, 2022 / 0 Comments

In this guest post, John Hunter pulls a few excerpts from Dr. Deming’s 1978 speech in Tokyo and connects them to Deming’s later work refining his ideas.

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Woman's face with medical icons next to her, including 2 pills, a heart, a pill bottle, a cross, and others.

Transforming Resident Assessment with Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge

By John Hunter / May 23, 2022 / 1 Comment

In this guest post John Hunter reviews “Transforming Resident Assessment: An Analysis Using Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge” and discusses how evaluations often lead to bad data.

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Empty classroom with desks facing a teacher's lectern, desk, and blackboard.

Are Best Efforts Ruining Education?

By Christina Dragonetti / May 16, 2022 / 2 Comments

In this guest post, Taylor Lux views the American education system through the Deming lens, finding significant shortfalls in spite of educators’ best efforts.

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How to Improve Employee Morale and Engagement

By John Hunter / May 9, 2022 / 0 Comments

The way to improve morale and engagement is to improve the work. Eliminate things that drive workers crazy by making their work more difficult and by creating work that should never have to be done if the system were designed better. (Guest post by John Hunter.)

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Our Only Hope

By Guest Post / April 5, 2022 / 2 Comments

Guest post by Dr. Doug Stilwell, Assistant Professor Drake University: Now more than ever, I wish Dr. Deming was still with us, for even at age 64 I have so many burning questions I’d like to ask him, driven by the extreme frustration I feel about the “state of things” in our world.

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The words Plan Do Study and Act are in four quadrants of a circle with arounds pointing around each quadrant toward the next in a clockwise direction.

From “Too Tight” to “Just Right:” Improving Staff Meetings Using PDSA

By Christina Dragonetti / March 18, 2022 / 0 Comments

Our team had a common problem: weekly staff meetings were disorganized, a little frustrating, and almost always lasted longer than one hour. Like ill-fitting shoes, they served to keep our feet dry but made running difficult. Recognizing a change was needed, we turned to the process improvement tool devised by Dr. Deming: Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA).

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