New UK Deming activity

["Alan C Clark" <alan@keybiz.com>]

Dear DENIZENS,

A new centre of Deming activity is being formed in the UK. The new Deming
Special Interest Group is being formed within the Institute of Quality
Assurance (IQA)and will be launched on Tuesday 26 March 2002 at IQA
headquarters in London.

The purpose of the Group is to promote, through the IQA, ways in which the
Deming approach can improve products, services and the world of work. It
intends to act as a catalyst for the understanding, exploration, application
and possibly the development of Deming’s thinking. Membership of the Group
will be free to all IQA Members and in addition will offer special Deming
Affiliate membership to former British Deming Association members.
Ultimately the Group wants to establish four primary activities to deliver
value based on Deming’s thinking: research which will include examining the
relationship to other management philosophies / approaches; communication;
provision of a UK Deming archive and facilitated self-help in learning about
Deming’s thinking.

Group activities will begin with research studying Deming’s thinking and its
application. The research is intended to build a credible base of evidence
that will help managers and organisations adopt his style of management in
order to make their work go ever better.
At the launch day the relevance of Deming's thinking will be shown for
today's world along with the strategy intended to enable the Group to
develop the capability to help organisations use it. This introduction will
be followed by and 'openspace' style event that addresses the following four
research topics from a Deming perspective:
o What is quality?
o ISO 9001:2000.
o A Deming case study based on the book 'Free, Perfect and Now' by Rob
Rodin.
o Deming’s use in his thinking of Walter A Shewhart’s work, which included
SPC

The parallel format should allow participants freedom to move freely between
the sessions to find something that interests them. Those gathered there are
also free to develop their own research topics in areas of interest. The day
will close with summaries from the four sessions and information about
future events.

The launch event will run from 10.30 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. A small fee of £25
will be charged which will cover refreshments and a copy of a book which
contains the first known reference to the concept of continual improvement.
So contact the IQA to book now (++44 (0)20 7245 6722) since places are
likely to be at a premium. We look forward to seeing as many of you as
possible on March 26th, 2002.


Alan C Clark
Chair of Design Team, Deming Special Interest Group