“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)

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W. Edwards Deming photo
W. Edwards Deming 33
American professor, author, and consultant 1900–1993

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