Out of the Crisis

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Summary: Educators should read this, too!
Review: The principles and methods described by Deming are useful in creating and maintaining a stimulating and rewarding learning environment: a true community in the school in which teachers, administrators, parents--and students!--may benefit as "stakeholders" in education. Must reading.

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Summary: Pure common sense! A must read for anyone.
Review: This book will have you smacking your forehead and laughing out-loud! Deming uses real life case studies to share with the reader the 'simplicity' of his profound knowledge. His teachings may have a profound impact on how you view life, not just business. This book is a good read for just about anyone, but a must read for senior level and middle managers. It will show you what we are doing wrong, and, how to change. Abandon the Western Management Philosophy and adopt the New Philosophy! What is it? READ THIS BOOK TO FIND OUT! Kevin Mader

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Summary: A quality classic
Review: This is a classic in the world of quality assurance. It is fair to call Deming the father, godfather, grandfather and preacher of the quality movement. This book, written in 1986 after he achieved international fame for helping improve quality in Japan, captures the spirit and ideas that spawned a revolution.

The book captures many of the key points in Deming's philosophy:
1) Creating metrics based approaches to management, without falling into a quota system.
2) Differentiating between problems caused by the system and problems outside of the system.
3) Focusing on both doing things correctly, and identifying the right tasks to approach.
4) Introducing a Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle of continuous improvement.

If you look at this list, the book presents a blueprint for many of the so called management revolutions of the subsequent 15 years: Excellence, Re-engineering, Process Management, Systems Thinking. This book really is both a trend setter as well as highly important body of theory. The theory is relevant today, as many management problems today can be addressed by his 14 points of management. (Example: A reliance on inspection is bad - build quality into the process. This is highly relevant to software construction today.)

So are there any knocks?
1) You're left with many imperatives, but sometimes without positive prescriptions. For example: If you don't do annual performance reviews, what do you replace it with to determine who gets promoted?
2) The book can be dry and hard to follow. Sometimes it is written as notes pieced together.
3) Many of the companies that Deming held up as models have fallen on tougher times. It seems that today Quality alone is not enough.

Having said this, it should be required reading for any manager. The theory is good, and the book should spark your thinking.

Rating:
Summary: A quality classic
Review: This is a classic in the world of quality assurance. It is fair to call Deming the father, godfather, grandfather and preacher of the quality movement. This book, written in 1986 after he achieved international fame for helping improve quality in Japan, captures the spirit and ideas that spawned a revolution.

The book captures many of the key points in Deming's philosophy:
1) Creating metrics based approaches to management, without falling into a quota system.
2) Differentiating between problems caused by the system and problems outside of the system.
3) Focusing on both doing things correctly, and identifying the right tasks to approach.
4) Introducing a Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle of continuous improvement.

If you look at this list, the book presents a blueprint for many of the so called management revolutions of the subsequent 15 years: Excellence, Re-engineering, Process Management, Systems Thinking. This book really is both a trend setter as well as highly important body of theory. The theory is relevant today, as many management problems today can be addressed by his 14 points of management. (Example: A reliance on inspection is bad - build quality into the process. This is highly relevant to software construction today.)

So are there any knocks?
1) You're left with many imperatives, but sometimes without positive prescriptions. For example: If you don't do annual performance reviews, what do you replace it with to determine who gets promoted?
2) The book can be dry and hard to follow. Sometimes it is written as notes pieced together.
3) Many of the companies that Deming held up as models have fallen on tougher times. It seems that today Quality alone is not enough.

Having said this, it should be required reading for any manager. The theory is good, and the book should spark your thinking.

Rating:
Summary: Packed with Knowledge!
Review: W. Edward Deming could be called the Mozart of quality control, the Shakespeare of business consulting, the Michelangelo of management science. Deming is the sine qua non of modern business thought - the "without which not." Perhaps more than any other thinker, he engineered the rise of Japanese competitiveness in the consumer goods sector, thereby giving a major prod to globalization. Perhaps his only failure was not envisioning the Big Brother extremes to which some would later push his ideas of "consistency of purpose" (for example, continuous quality improvement). Then again, prophets are plagued by their own disciples. Deming passes the test of time with flying colors. In this reprint of his 1986 classic, his eloquent arguments for single-supplier sourcing and leadership rather than supervision, and against production quotas and the absurd practice of MBWA (management by walking around), ring as true today as ever. We from getAbstract believe that classics should be revisited often, and highly recommends Deming's seminal work to thoughtful people in business at all levels.

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Summary: Quite simply the one book all managers must read.
Review: W. Edwards Demming's Out Of the Crisis is a manifesto for all management types that wish to find a better way. A better way to run their business, a better way to treat their employees, a better way to make more money, a better way. If you have an open mind this book will flick that switch in your head ON. If you have a closed mind you will at least know how your competition is putting you out of business. READ THIS BOOK!

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Summary: "The transformation can only be accomplished by man"
Review: W.Edwards Deming is one of the leading thinkers of modern management as a key originator of total quality management. D.Wren and R.Greenwood write, in their 'Management Innovators,' "Deming was critical of U.S. management, perhaps because he had been ignored far so long, but more probably because U.S. firms were losing market share to more quality-oriented competitors. He blamed U.S. management because the wealth of a nation did not depend on its natural resources but on its people, management, and goverment: 'The probem is where to find good management. It would be a mistake to export American management to a friendly country.' "

In this context, in Chapter 2, in order to transform American industry, Deming presents the 14 points that constitute his theory of management:

1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.

2. Adopt new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.

3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.

4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.

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

6. Institute training on the job.

7. Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.

8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.

9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.

11. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.

12. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective.

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

14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.

According to Deming application of these points will transform style of management. Unfortunately, some deadly diseases stand in the way of transformation. Thus, in Chapter 3, he identifies seven deadly diseases that cause the decline of American industry:

1. Lack of constancy of purpose to plan product and service that will have a market and keep the company in business, and provide jobs.

2. Emphasis on short-term profits.

3. Evaluation of performance, merit rating, or annual review.

4. Mobility of management, job hopping.

5. Management by use only of visible figures, with little or no consideration of figures that are unknown or unknowable.

6. Excessive medical costs.

7. Excessive costs of liability, swelled by lawyers that work on contigency fees.

I highly recommend this business classic for all managers.

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Summary: A great book about quality control
Review: When I first saw this book a few years ago at a friend's house I never imagined that I would enjoy reading it. However, somehow my opinion changed recently while I was looking for a good book about manufacturing quality control. This book agrees with all that I believed to be true based on my limited manufacturing experience--the plant worker is very rarely to blame for quality problems, rather problems are usually the result of system issues.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and couldn't put it down. It is a great overview of quality control methods and control charts. I also have Mary Walton's "The Deming Management Method", but I would strongly recommend to just read Deming's masterpiece.

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Summary: True to the core
Review: With my current research interest circling 'Total Quality Management (TQM)', this book came to my attention. Upon reading it, followed by six seminal sessions and a three-day conference with the British Deming Association (BDA) in the UK, I felt totally disgusted with the way the society, in particular people who call themselves 'Quality Consultants' preach the gospel of the term 'Quality'. This book and BDA exposed to my then propagated mind, the true meaning of 'Quality'. Many organisations and academic institutions tend to pervertise and manipulate the term for marketing and other strategic purposes which is despicable... as most societies around the world will inevitably embrace the stigma-ridden myth to the term.

Deming highlights the essential roots to performance in his now famous 14 pts. for management. He attested that management is the key that allows quality improvement to occur within organisations and stated that the function of management is not supervision but leadership; which must work on sources of improvement, the intent on quality of product and service and on the translation of that intent into design and actual product.

When Deming went over to Japan after the Second World War to assist in the restoration of the Japanese economy, he conducted an empirical prognosis on the general economic situation using an SPC method which he had perfected while leading the American census. Deming then met up with 80% of the country's leaders and told them that the only way to revive their economy was to enhance their competitiveness in the international market by focusing on quality productions via stringent manufacturing standards. Most Japanese leaders scorned at Deming's idea and demanded for him to feel the reality of their situations then. However, the leaders heeded Deming's advice in the end, as they felt that "... having lost all, they have got nothing else to lose."

Forty years later, Japan became an international economic giant with an economy twice the size of all other East-Asian economies combined, including China. Her current GDP value is the second highest in the world after the USA's, despite a much smaller national population. Japan's financial prowess remains stable despite the current economic slump in Asia, as President Clinton said in Shanghai (1998),

"We (America) cannot see growth restored in Asia until it is restored in Japan."

This book is a superb guide not only to prodigal management principles, but also Deming's personal philosophies regarding life and effective leadership. Although considered an essential read personally, I would recommend to those who are new to Deming's ideas to check out "The New Economics", Deming's last book prior to his death in 1993, as an actual managerial guide, as it will be easier and more effective for them to realise.

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Summary: Six Sigma...Demming created it....Harry ripped it off!
Review: Witness the big bang of the quality universe. If you manage anything this is a method you must understand.