Deming's Fourteen Points of Management

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Total Quality Management. Explanation of Fourteen Points of Management by Edward Deming.

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Short biography of W. Edwards Deming

W Edwards Deming was an American statistician who is associated with the rise of Japan as a manufacturing nation, and with the invention of Total Quality Management (TQM). Deming went to Japan just after the War to help set up a census of the Japanese population. While he was there, he taught 'statistical process control' to Japanese engineers - a set of techniques which allowed them to manufacture high-quality goods without expensive machinery. In 1960 he was awarded a medal by the Japanese Emperor for his services to that country's industry.

Deming returned to the US and was unknown for years until the publication of his book "Out of the crisis" in 1982. In this book, Deming set out 14 points which, if applied to US manufacturing industry, would he believed, save the US from industrial doom by the Japanese.

The Fourteen Points of Management of Dr. W. Edward Deming represent for many people the essence of Total Quality Management (TQM).

Deming's Fourteen Points of Management

Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service. Compare: Hoshin Kanri - Policy Deployment. (Organizations must allocate resources for long-term planning, research, and education, and for the constant improvement of the design of their products and services)
Adopt the new philosophy. (Government regulations representing obstacles must be removed, transformation of companies is needed)
End the dependence on mass inspections. (Quality must be designed and built into the processes. Prevent defects, rather than attempting to detect and fix them, after they have occurred)
End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tags alone. (Organizations should establish long-term relationships with [single] suppliers)
Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service. (Management and employees must search continuously for ways to improve quality and productivity)
Institute training. (Training at all levels is a necessity, not optional)
Adopt and institute leadership. (Managers should lead, not supervise)
Drive out fear. (Make employees feel secure enough to express ideas and ask questions)
Break down barriers between staff areas. (Working in teams will solve many problems and will improve quality and productivity)
Eliminate slogans, warnings, and targets for the workforce. (Problems with quality and productivity are caused by the system, not by individuals. Posters and slogans generate frustration and resentment)
Eliminate numerical quotas for the work force and numerical goals for people in management. (To achieve their quotas, people will create defective products and false reports)
Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship. (Individual performance reviews are a great barrier to pride of achievement)
Encourage education and self-improvement for everyone. (Continuous learning for everyone)
Take action to accomplish the transformation. (Commitment on the part of both top management and employees is required).

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Recent User Comments

    			 
  			   S Nair - India
  	       
  		     No Quality without Measurements
  	  		 "Elimination of measuring the quality, productivity & performance (system + individual) at each and every stage of production or development do not help any business survive long in the market, for sure. Deming's principles are overly people dependent and blame the system when something goes wrong, which might not be true most of the time. This would have probably increased waste, inventory, production/labour costs while significantly lowering the productivity.  It probably worked in the 40's and 70's just because nothing else existed.

In modern business environments, TQM/TPS principles might be used as a mere reference while embracing the concepts of Six Sigma and LEAN which are more process/data oriented and proven beyond doubt."
  			   
    	  		 3

    			 
  			   Michael Talbot - USA
  	       
  		     Dr. Deming's TQM Beliefs
  	  		 "Has anyone thought of mentioning Dr. Demings contributions to the USA during the AIG fiasco? Had AIG and Wallstreet implemented his 14 goals I don't think that we would be in this financial crisis. Someone in the know please speak up about his contributions."
  			   
    	  		 0

    			 
  			   Tom Morrison - USA
  	       
  		     (Two Causes of) Variation
  	  		 "Underlying Deming's 14 points and indeed his entire work is the notion of VARIATION, or why things do not behave as predicted.

According to Deming there are two causes of variation: special causes and common causes. It is crucial for managers to be able to distinguish between special and common causes of variation.

Special causes of variation are usually attributable to easily recognizable factors such as a change of a procedure, a change of shift or operator.

Common causes of variation remain when special causes are eliminated and are often inherent in the design, process, or system.

Even if workers can recognize common causes, only managers have the authority to change them.

Hence Deming's famous words: "Only management can change the system"."
  			   
    	  		 5

    			 
  			   Henry - Belgium
  	       
  		     Significance of Business Partners in TQM
  	  		 "Business partners are important for TQM. When suppliers are providing raw materials of a poor quality or defective semimanufactured products, the end product will probably be inadequate, poor or defective as well. The same is valid if distribution partners are working with methods or resources of poor quality.

This is why Total Quality Management is conducive to Supply Chain Cooperation and vice versa."
  			   
    	  		 5

    			 
  			   George - UK
  	       
  		     Measuring Performance without Numerical Quotas
  	  		 "How can performance truly and accurately be measured without numerical quotas?"
  			   
    	  		 0

Best User Comments

    			   
    			     Alan - UK
  	         
  				   Reward Mechanisms and TQM
  				   "Consider that there can be a significant influence of reward systems on the employee involvement in Total Quality Management, both positive and negative... To establish the right culture for quality, and to motivate your employees to take ownership for quality, you should make quality improvements worthwhile for them. Besides these tangible, financial rewards, you should also offer soft rewards, such as when you publicise successes with the people behind it. Both of these reward types will help to maintain the necessary change impetus."
    			   
        	  		 14

    			   
    			     Milton - USA
  	         
  				   Quality Management Stages
  				   "The following stages of quality management are typically distinguished: I) Ad hoc. II) Product oriented. III) Process oriented. IV) Systematic. V) Chain oriented. VI) Total Qualty Management."
    			   
        	  		 7

    			   
    			     Bob Janis - US
  	         
  				   Definition of Total Quality Management
  				   "I need the ultimate definition of TQM. Here is my best shot:

Total Quality Management is a management philosophy and methodology that aims to meet and exceed the customer's expectations of products and services through the continuous incremental improvement of processes and a quality-driven culture, vision and leadership style. Please advise."
    			   
        	  		 4

    			   
    			     Dr.Hemjith - India
  	         
  				   Quotes on TQM…
  				   "Quality has been of such prime importance even thousands of years ago (384-322 BC) during Aristotle's era and I would quote from Aristotle "Quality is not an act, it is a habit". Aristotle believed that men acquire quality by constantly acting in a particular way and goes on to say "You become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions". --"
    			   
        	  		 3

    			   
    			     Mark Pym - UK
  	         
  				   Quality Deming
  				   "Thank you for the reminder from Deming - I really believe much of what he said still holds true, especially the comments about driving out fear and performance reviews!  The birth of ''employee engagement'' isn't new -Deming was writing about this twenty years ago!  The one point I would add is that this all comes from the values in the organisation and ensuring that all these seperate points are alligned."
    			   
        	  		 -1

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12manage for:

                     
                      ●  (UAE)
                      
                    How Do You Measure Quality
                    "Bsed on some of the views, are we to say that Deming's Principles are outdated and need reforming?"

                     
                      ● B.Viswanathan (India)
                      
                    Common Causes of Variation
                    "While I agree that though common causes of variations are detected by workers they have no authority to change them on their own that is without the authority of management, times are slowly changing. To close the time loss due to delay in change required by empowering the workers to make slight changes without affecting major design or system changes, because it can not be done as per ISO 9001-2000 system.  However things could be speeded up by quality circle suggestions. But then for this to happen we need effective and vibrant quality circle activity."

● Bill (US)	Deming's 14 points	"The idea is to not define a threshold for performance but to continually strive for improvement. If a threshold is defined that is as far as you will go. Always leave room for doing better than a predetermined level of performance."
● Selcuk (TR)	Deming's point 11	"Unless point 11 is interpreted together with all the other points of Deming, it is meaningless. The 14 points are a whole."
● Lesley Porter (Autstralia)	Deming and Measuring Performance	"Performance is visible and the quotas come after the performance has been tuned up where employees work together in unison towards that same goal like a well oiled machine humming away."
● Hasan (Turkey)	Numerical Quota Elimination	"Indeed, without applying quotas you can measure the performance because your driving force is continuous improvement. You measure and then work for better always. Then you do not need to set quotas because every time you work for doing better the last one. As better as you do, you will close to your system's limit value at infinity."

● Katie (UK)	Over-rewarding	"Interesting perspective, but I believe too much (or inappropriate levels of) reward actually drive down performance. Publicly recognising or rewarding individuals for anything less than extraordinary levels of work simply serves to drive down the expected norms of achievement."
● Jurgen (Gibraltar)	Reward Mechanism	"Agree with Alan, there is evidence in the corporate world, just analyse the systems used in some of the highest-effective assembly plants like GM-Opel/Eisenach/Germany."
● Nancy (Puerto Rico)	New Perspective on Management	"For me these 14 points by Deming are very useful. They have a lot of wisdom in them and sure help me to view managament from a new or different perspective."

                       
                        ● Imre (Australia)
                        
                      Quality Management Stages
                      "This looks interesting - do you have a reference source for these stages. It would seem to me that Chain Oriented should precede Systematic..."

● Sjors (NL)	Hard and Soft TQM	"Sometimes people distinguish between Hard Total Quality Management (TQM mainly aimed at statistically measuring quality and quality assurance, 80s) and Soft Total Quality Management (TQM seen as a philosophy, attitudinal & culture change - more like your definition, 90s)."
● John Troughton (Australia)	Definition of Total Quality	"Too verbose"
● Marty Hunter (USA)	Definition of Total Quality Management-Reward	"All of the processes, procedures, quality walks, bonus structures, employee praise and all other means of motivation do little to improve overall quality, if management is seen as aloof and disingaged from the people who decide what quality is (the customer) and the people (the employees,vendors and, subcontractors) and systems who/which deliver it to them. It is the customer who ultimately decides what quality is and a company whose staff and management are disconnected from each other cannot possibly be truly or effectively engaged with the customer."
● Dodoiyi Deinbo William-West (Nigeria)	Total Quality Management	"I think Bob Janis effort should be commended. However, being engaged in Public Relations, I would however say that TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IS A MANAGEMENT APPROACH DEVELOPED BY AN ORGANISATION TO SATISFY THE EXPECTATIONS OF ALL THE PARTIES THAT PERTAIN TO AN ORGANISATION WITH THE AIM OF ENSURING THAT QUALITY IS NOT COMPROMISED IN DELIVERING PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND ALL COMMUNICATION EFFORTS."
● John Chamberlin (England (Old))	TQM Definition	"I'll offer this: 'Total Quality' is defined as - 'Meeting the customer's (agreed) requirements, first time every time, at lowest cost'. The word 'agreed' is included (in brackets) because no company or organisation does anything for nothing, and the 'quality' of the 'agreed' product or service will also have an 'agreed' cost. An 'agreed' change in the 'requirements' is likely to attract an 'agreed' change in the cost. The 'M' part of 'TQM' is there because it is 'Management-led' - if they don't 'show (and maintain) the lead', why should anyone else?. Cheers. John C. Faculty of Business, Computing & Law, University of Derby"
● Sudhir Bhaskar (India)	TQM Definition	"A UNIVERSALLY APPLICABLE DEFINITION IS UNITY OF THOUGHT , WORD AND DEEDS OF THE MANAGEMENT OF THE ORGANISATION. Just contemplate on it and you will find that it is applicable in every area of management inside and outside."
● Grace Oshun (Nigeria)	Definition of TQM	"I tend to agree with Bob Janis' definition of TQM. I also believe that Deming's 14 points of management can be applied to the field of education."
● Huang (Malaysia)	TQM Definition	"TQM is the complete commitment to meet typical customers' criteria of expectation in products, service and also rate of productivity."

                       
                        ● Henry (Belgium)
                        
                      My favorite TQM quotes
                      "Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - William A. Foster.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking - Henry Ford

Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for - Peter Drucker

Nothing is more expensive than poor quality - Unknown"

                       
                        ●  (Malaysia)
                        
                      Current TQM Standard - Model to Achieve and Target to Surpass.
                      "It appears that the "current set standards" of TQM is the "model" to be achieved and "target" to surpass. Hence for the continuous process or re-engineering / re-designing .... in order to set another new standards of TQM.... when will it end ......?"