W. Edwards Deming: Productivity

W. Edwards Deming was American professor, author, and consultant. Explore interesting quotes on productivity.
W. Edwards Deming: 66   quotes 7   likes

“In Europe and in America, people are now more interested in the cost of quality and in systems of quality-audit. But in Japan, we are keeping very strong interest to improve quality by use of methods which you started…. when we improve quality we also improve productivity, just as you told us in 1950 would happen.”

W. Edwards Deming

Source: Out Of The Crisis (1982), p. 2

People , Strong

“Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.”

W. Edwards Deming

Source: Out Of The Crisis (1982), p. 23 (Point 5 from the "Condensation of the 14 Points for Management" presented in Chapter 2)

“They realized that the gains that you get by statistical methods are gains that you get without new machinery, without new people. Anybody can produce quality if he lowers his production rate. That is not what I am talking about. Statistical thinking and statistical methods are to Japanese production workers, foremen, and all the way through the company, a second language. In statistical control you have a reproducible product hour after hour, day after day. And see how comforting that is to management, they now know what they can produce, they know what their costs are going to be.”

W. Edwards Deming

If Japan Can...Why Can't We? (1980)

People , Way , Thinking

“Quality comes not from inspection, but from improvement of the production process.”

W. Edwards Deming

Source: Out Of The Crisis (1982), p. 29

“Loss of market begets unemployment. Emphasis has been on short-term profit, to the undernourishment of plans that might generate new product and service that would keep the company alive and provide jobs and more jobs. It is no longer socially acceptable performance to lose market and to dump hourly workers on to the heap of unemployed.
The basic sickness of American industry and resulting unemployment is failure of top management to manage. Loss of market, and unemployment, are not foreordained. They are not inevitable. They are not acceptable. The day is past when people in management need not know anything about management by which I mean to include problems of production, supervision, training.”

W. Edwards Deming

Source: Quality, Productivity and Competitive Position, (1982), p. i; Preface

People , Failure , Problem , Loss

“Foremost is the principle that the purpose of consumer research is to understand the customer's needs and wishes, and thus 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…”

W. Edwards Deming

Source: Out Of The Crisis (1982), p. 175

Understanding , Business , Loss , Future

“Part of America's industrial problems is the aim of its corporate managers. Most American executives think they are in the business to make money, rather than products or service…The Japanese corporate credo, on the other hand, is that a company should become the world's most efficient provider of whatever product and service it offers. Once it becomes the world leader and continues to offer good products, profits follow.”

W. Edwards Deming

Source: Out Of The Crisis (1982), p. 99

Money , World , Business , Problem

“The aim of this book is to try to explain to top management of America that their job is to improve competitive position. One need not be an economist to understand from the papers that many American products are not competitive at home or abroad, lost to foreign invasion, causing unemployment at home. Failure of management to plan for the future and to foresee problems has nurtured waste of manpower, of materials and of machine time, all of which raise the manufacturers costs and the price the purchaser must pay. The consumer is not always willing to subsidize this waste.”

W. Edwards Deming

Source: Quality, Productivity and Competitive Position, (1982), p. i; Preface

Books , Home , Failure , Understanding

“The supposition is prevalent the world over that there would be no problems in production or service if only our production workers would do their jobs in the way that they were taught. Pleasant dreams. The workers are handicapped by the system, and the system belongs to the management.”

W. Edwards Deming

Source: Out Of The Crisis (1982), p. 134

World , Dreams , Way , Problem

“We cannot rely on mass inspection to improve quality, though there are times when 100 percent inspection is necessary. As Harold S. Dodge said many years ago, 'You cannot inspect quality into a product.' The quality is there or it isn't by the time it's inspected.”

W. Edwards Deming

Source: Out Of The Crisis (1982), p. 139

Time