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‘We installed quality control.’ No. You can install a new desk, or a new carpet, or a new dean, but not quality control. Anyone that proposes to ‘install quality control’ unfortunately has little knowledge about quality control.

[A] dissatisfied customer does not complain: he just switches.

[G]ood quality and the right uniformity have no meaning except with reference to the consumer’s demands.

[If you] have work standards, productivity goes down and quality [goes down]. Work standards don’t help anybody – what do they do to you? It doubles your cost.

[M]anagement by numerical goal is an attempt to manage without knowledge of what to do, and in fact is usually management by fear.

[Personal] goals are necessary for you and for me, but numerical goals set for other people, without a road map to reach the goal, have effects opposite to the effects sought.

[T]he prime purpose in carrying out a survey or experiment is to find answers to certain questions in order to provide a basis for rational prediction, usually in order that action may be taken on the sources of the data.

[The System of Profound Knowledge] provides a map of theory by which to understand the organizations that we work in.

A bad system will beat a good person every time.

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