Deming believed that quality must be the foundation of everything that
businesses do. A consistent theme in Deming’s work has been the reluctance of
managers to accept that theirs is the key role in changing process and driving
the improvement in quality. Deming believed that organizations should be more
responsive, more democratic and less wasteful. Deming’s ideas challenged past
beliefs and legacies and started a revolution in a new wave of management. A
principle of Deming Management is quality. He believes that everyone benefits
from improved quality. His logic works like this: first, have better quality
goods and services. If you have better goods then you will have lower costs due
to less waste and scrap and this results in an efficient use of resources. With
less time devoted on wastes there is more attention focused on creating a higher
productivity. This leads to greater market share gained by the company due to
lower prices and superior quality. With greater market share follows improved
business prospects and increased employment. Sounds easy enough, right? Another
principle of Deming Management is to focus on the customer. The customer should
always come first. If the customer is treated with quality he will come back for
future business and chances are that he will spread the word about the great
quality and customer satisfaction he gained. Deming Management scorns U.S.
management for the preoccupation of finding someone to blame rather than to fix
the problem.
Managers created the system and they could have changed it to prevent the
problems. If employees were doing something wrong, managers should have helped
by finding out what they did not understand as opposed to blaming them. People
will perform better if the system is redesigned to let them do so. Deming
Management urges mangers to treat employees as the inside customer, unlike where
Frederick Taylor treated the employer/management relationship based on an
“economical man.” Dealing with not wants, needs, ideas and suggestions as Deming
had done, but with pay incentives. Deming believed that people could really do a
good job, perform great tasks with quality and then on to teaching others what
they have learned with their job tasks, Taylor could not really grasp the
complete idea. Dr. Deming’s ideas directly challenged the legacy of Taylor’s
scientific management. He believed that scientific management let to rigid and
autocratic organizations unresponsive to customers and employees alike. Taylor
had clearly stated rules and laws, scientific selection and training of workers
and division of tasks and responsibilities between management and workers.
Taylor recommended that there should be a detailed analysis of each job, using
the techniques of method study and time study, in order to find the method of
working that would bring about the largest average rate of production, the
so-called “one best way.” He also advocated issuing detailed written
instructions, training and incentive payments in order to ensure that jobs were
performed in the approved manner. Deming believed that instead of doing
something the way it’s always been done, you should now support all the other
“players” involved in the job. Optimizing people’s best talents produced the
best results. The first job as a leader and effective manager is to realize that
all people are different and there is not just the “one way” of doing tasks.
Deming also had developed 14 points for successful total quality management. His
fourteen points constitute his basic principles of management philosophy, which
is sometimes referred to as his “ operational theory of management.” His
fourteen points taken together assume a holistic approach to quality management.
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