Deming Philosophy Synopsis
The philosophy of W. Edwards Deming has been summarized as follows:
- "Dr. W. Edwards Deming taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations can increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs (by reducing waste, rework, staff attrition and litigation while increasing customer loyalty). The key is to practice continual improvement and think of manufacturing as a system, not as bits and pieces."
In the 1970s, Deming's philosophy was summarized by some of his Japanese proponents with the following 'a'-versus-'b' comparison:
- (a) When people and organizations focus primarily on quality, defined by the following ratio,
- quality tends to increase and costs fall over time.
- (b) However, when people and organizations focus primarily on costs, costs tend to rise and quality declines over time.
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