Motivation – nonsense. All that people need to know is why their work is important.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2013). The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality. McGraw Hill Education.
,page 156, From a presentation at General Motors in 1992
Necessity to study the needs of the consumer, and to provide service to product, was one of the main doctrines of quality taught to Japanese management in 1950 and onward. Foremost is the principle that the purpose of consumer research is to understand the consumer’s needs and wishes, and thus to design product and service that will provide better living for him in the future. A second principle is that no one can guess the future loss of business from a dissatisfied customer. The cost to replace a defective item on the production line is fairly easy to estimate, but the cost of a defective item that goes out to a customer defies measure.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2000). Out of the Crisis – 2nd Edition. Kindle Edition. The MIT Press.
,page 149
New product and new types of service are generated, not by asking the consumer, but by knowledge, imagination, innovation, risk, trial and error on the part of the producer, backed by enough capital to develop the product or service and to stay in business during the lean months of introduction.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2000). Out of the Crisis – 2nd Edition. Kindle Edition. The MIT Press.
,Page 156
Ninety-five percent of changes made by management today make no improvement.
No community need be poor if it has people and good management. No country need be poor if it has people and good management.
Deming Interview by William W. Scherkenbach on February 29, 1984
,February 29, 1984 Dr. Deming Interview by William W. Scherkenbach, Director of Statistical Methods at Ford Motor Company. Interview was later incorporated as part of the Transformation of American Industry Series. February 29, 1984
No one can measure the loss of business that may arise from a defective item that goes out to a customer.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2013). The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality. McGraw Hill Education.
,pages 176-178, From a speech by W. Edwards Deming, “New Principles in Administration for Quality and Efficiency” (in Manila, Philippines, July 2, 1971).
Nothing can do you so much harm as a lousy competitor. Be thankful for a good competitor.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2018). The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education – 3rd Edition. Kindle Edition. MIT Press.
,page 1, quoting Alfred Politz
One gets a good rating for fighting a fire. The result is visible; can be quantified. If you do it right the first time, you are invisible. You satisfied the requirements. That is your job. Mess it up, and correct it later, you become a hero.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2000). Out of the Crisis – 2nd Edition. Kindle Edition. The MIT Press.
,page 91, Quoting a seminar attendee.
Pay is not a motivator.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2013). The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality. McGraw Hill Education.
,page 82, From a memorandum to Donald E. Petersen, then CEO of Ford Motor Company,
September 22, 1987
Putting out fires is not improvement of the process. Neither is discovery and removal of a special cause detected by a point out of control. This only puts the process back to where it should have been in the first place.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2000). Out of the Crisis – 2nd Edition. Kindle Edition. The MIT Press.
,page 44, an insight by Joseph M. Juran