W. Edwards Deming

William Edwards Deming, in the literature erroneously Walter Edwards Deming ( born October 14, 1900 in Sioux City, Iowa, † December 20, 1993 in Washington, DC) was an American physicist, statistician and pioneer in the field of quality management. As a student of Walter A. Shewhart, the founder of statistical process control, it developed from the 1940s, the process- oriented view of the activities of the company, which later found its way into the various quality standards and quality management teachings.

Life

Deming's parents were William Albert Deming and Pluma Irene Edwards. Shortly after the birth of William Edwards ( he got his mother's maiden name as a nickname to distinguish him from his father can, which was William called) the family moved to Deming to Powell ( Wyoming), where William Edwards and together with his brother Robert sister Elizabeth spent his childhood. His father worked as an insurance agent, real estate broker and lawyer, his mother as a piano teacher.

1923 Deming married Agnes Belle the teacher. The couple adopted a daughter, Dorothy. Agnes Belle died in 1930, in 1932 married Deming Lola Shupe, a mathematician. From this marriage the daughters Diana ( b. 1934 ) and Linda went (* 1942) shows.

Deming attended the University of Wyoming (B. S. in Engineering 1921), University of Colorado (M. S. in mathematics and mathematical physics 1925) and Yale University, where he in 1928 received his doctorate in mathematical physics (PhD). He then taught at various universities, worked as a mathematical physicist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture ( United States Department of Agriculture, 1927-1939 ) and was a statistical consultant to the U.S. Office of Vital Statistics (U.S. Bureau of Census ). From 1946 to 1993 he occupied a professor of statistics at New York University's Graduate School of Business Administration; He also taught at Columbia University. In addition, he worked from 1946 as a consultant for private companies.

1950 brought him General Douglas MacArthur as a statistician and quality expert to Japan. Deming's findings remained largely unnoticed in the U.S.. That did not change even after Kaoru Ishikawa Deming in 1950 allowed it to make its findings known to the senior managers of Japan. As a result, in 1951 for the first time a Japanese company was awarded the so-called Deming Prize for particularly high quality in production. Also in the Toyota Production System Deming's ideas have fallen very early on fertile ground.

Deming and his findings were only from 24 June 1980 after the broadcast of an NBC documentary titled If Japan can ... Why can not we? perceived in the U.S., at a time when large parts of the American consumer goods industry had been overrun formally by the Japanese competition also due to better quality already.

In Europe, there are similar ideas: see European Quality Award and Ludwig Erhard Prize.

Deming summarized his findings together in a 14 -point program for better management, 7 hurdles for the implementation of the new philosophy and the seven deadly diseases of management systems. In addition to the Demingschen reaction chain also the description of the PDCA cycle (Plan Do Check Act ) Deming is attributed. Deming himself pointed out, however, that Walter A. Shewhart had that first described.

" Experience without theory, teaches management nothing about what to do to Improve quality and competitive position. "

"Experience without theory teaches the management not the least bit about what to do in order to improve the quality and competitive position. "

14 points of the management program

Deming defined ( presumably after Henri Fayols 14 Management Principles ) 14 points of the management program as follows.

Seven Deadly Diseases of Management Systems

Demingsche chain reaction

When Demingschen chain reaction it comes to hard facts, so the cost and not the image of the company ( this comes only now added in the advanced quality management concept ).

The necessary attitude for this is:

• Each employee is standing in his area of ​​responsibility for quality.
• There is no one who has nothing to do with quality.
• Quality engineering and state of mind.

Red Pearl attempt

The Red Pearl is an attempt ersonnenes of Deming example of a working process in which the workers have no influence on the outcome of their work and the achievement of objectives is unlikely, however, nevertheless rewarded or punished for precisely this result. The test is also known by the English name Red Beads.

Publications

• The New Economics, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-54116-5
• Out of the Crisis, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-54115-7
• Some Theory of Sampling, Dover Publications, ISBN 0 - 486-64684 -X
• Statistical Adjustment of Data, Dover Publications, ISBN 0486646858