RE: Misconceptions about Deming

[Steven_S_Prevette@rl.gov]

>Tending to financial performance and the expectations of Wall Street is a
part of the responsibilities of executives of publicly traded corporations.
Executives cannot afford to ignore or downplay the importance of this issue
for a corporation.  Deming should have realized that this was one of the
"facts of life" that he talked about.

I would suggest that Dr. Deming acknowledged that as a fact of life, but the
answer was to "take the high road" and practice long term systems thinking.
Focusing on the short term results (such as the quarterly report) led to
failure - I believe the theory is if you make true long term gains, the
short term will follow suit and stock prices will rise, etc etc.

See also pages 24 and 25 of TNE.  "Of course, management must work on
short-term problems as they come up.  But it is fatal to work exclusively on
short-term problems, only stamping out fires."

Steve Prevette
QA Engineer, ESH Radiological Compliance
Fluor Hanford, A Fluor Global Services Company
ASQ Certified Quality Engineer
steven_s_prevette@rl.gov
509-373-9371