Deming’s 14 Points: A Foundation for Quality Management

Posted on Dec 2, 2024 in Other subjects

Deming’s 14 Points for Quality Management

1. Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service.

  • An organization must define its values, mission, and long-term vision and invest in innovation, training, and research.
  • This responsibility rests with senior management.

2. Adopt the new philosophy.

  • Traditional management focuses on meeting quotas rather than optimizing.
  • Companies must develop an awareness of quality where “good enough” is unacceptable.
  • Adopt a customer-driven process.
  • Foster mutual cooperation between labor and management.

3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.

  • Administrators must understand the concept of variation.
  • Inspection should be a tool for information gathering and improvement, not for ensuring quality or blaming workers.

4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone.

  • Minimize total cost, not just initial price.
  • Select suppliers based on quality, not just convenience.
  • Consider hidden costs (e.g., supplier visits).
  • Avoid loss of volume discounts and costs of changing suppliers.

5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service.

  • Continuous improvement is key to success.
  • Understand customer needs to improve design.
  • Reduce variation to improve production.
  • Use statistical methods to identify variations.
  • Take corrective action.

6. Institute training on the job.

  • Provide continuous training on tools and required knowledge.
  • In Japan, even young managers (ages 4-12) receive online training.

7. Institute leadership.

  • Management should guide and support employees, reducing stress.

8. Drive out fear.

  • Fear hinders improvement. Fears include:
  • Fear of calling attention to problems.
  • Fear of failure.
  • Fear of the unknown.
  • Fear of loss of control.
  • Fear of change.
  • Fear of reporting issues (e.g., a supervisor ignoring a worn part to meet a quota, leading to a 4-day production halt).

9. Break down barriers between departments.

  • Eliminate barriers between departments and individuals.
  • Connect to scientific management procedures.

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce.

  • Slogans like “Do it right the first time” are ineffective.
  • They address the wrong people and assume all quality problems are due to human behavior.

11. Eliminate numerical quotas.

  • Performance evaluations tied to quotas lead to short-term focus and stifle innovation and research.
  • Avoid setting limits on production.

12. Remove barriers to pride of workmanship.

  • Address issues like monotonous tasks, inadequate materials/tools, and undesirable work schedules.
  • Deming argued that performance evaluations destroy teamwork.

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.

  • Promote extensive and continuing education for personal development.
  • Organizations must invest in staff at all levels for long-term success.

14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.

  • Create a cultural shift, especially in companies with traditional management practices.

Quality Management Philosophies

Key Contributors

  • W. Edwards Deming
  • Joseph M. Juran
  • Philip B. Crosby
  • V. Feigembaum
  • Kaoru Ishikawa

PDCA Cycle

PLAN: Establish objectives and processes aligned with customer requirements and company policies.

DO: Implement the processes.

CHECK: Monitor and measure processes against policies, objectives, and product requirements; report results.

ACT: Take actions for continual performance improvement.

Deming’s Contributions

  • 1920-1930: Western Electric
  • Emphasized the importance of senior management
  • Advocated customer-supplier partnerships
  • Inspired Kaiser Continuous Improvement
  • JUSE established the Deming Prize in 1951
  • Gained recognition in the U.S. in the 1980s
  • NBC’s “If Japan Can… Why Can’t We?” highlighted his work
  • Aimed to change overall management outlook
  • Died in 1993 at age 93
  • Famous quote: “Maybe like the one who all his life tried to prevent the U.S. from committing suicide”
  • Never precisely defined quality but focused on quality improvements through:
    • Reducing uncertainty
    • Reducing variability in design and process (variability being the main culprit for poor quality)

Variation

  • Quincunx (demonstrates normal distribution)
  • Normal distribution is bell-shaped

Common Causes of Variation

  • Appear randomly (80-90% of variation)
  • Examples: Tool wear, vibration from misalignment, power fluctuations, poor placement of parts, physical/emotional aspects, instrument calibration
  • A system governed by common causes is stable

Special Causes of Variation

  • Assignable causes (10-20% of variation)
  • Originate from external sources unrelated to the process
  • Examples: Faulty equipment from a supplier, inadequately trained operator, excessive tool wear, poor calibration of instruments

Horizontal Flowcharts

  • Identify causes of problems
  • Optimize systems

Fundamental Errors in Process Improvement

  • Treating common causes as special causes (e.g., attributing random faults to specific issues)
  • Treating special causes as common causes (e.g., overlooking a specific issue and attributing it to general system problems)

Chain Reaction Theory

Leads to long-term competitive power

7 Deadly Diseases Opposing the Search for Quality

  1. Lack of constancy of purpose
  2. Emphasis on short-term gains and immediate dividends
  3. Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of results
  4. Mobility of executives
  5. Management based solely on visible figures
  6. Excessive medical costs
  7. Excessive cost of guarantees

Deming Prize

  • Established intuitively in 1951
  • By the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE)
  • Checklist with 10 categories and checkpoints