‘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.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2000). Out of the Crisis – 2nd Edition. Kindle Edition. The MIT Press.
,page 138
[A leader] is coach and counsel, not a judge.
[A] dissatisfied customer does not complain: he just switches.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2000). Out of the Crisis – 2nd Edition. Kindle Edition. The MIT Press.
,page 149 Quoting Oliver Beckwith (1947), in a meeting of Committee E-11 of the American Society for Testing and Materials.
[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.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2000). Out of the Crisis – 2nd Edition. Kindle Edition. The MIT Press.
,page 65
[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.
Deming, W. Edwards. (2000). Out of the Crisis – 2nd Edition. Kindle Edition. The MIT Press.
,page 59
[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.
Four Day Deming Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona, February 1993
,from the notes of Mike Stoecklein