Does the Deming Approach have to be Top - Down?

[Steven_S_Prevette@rl.gov]

Ivan Webb wrote - 
Deming based management is a top-down method: and few people are at the top.
In addition few people currently work in places where Deming's methods would
be acceptable. But they have to return to their workplaces after they have
been offered enlightenment by the "colour-sighted" Deming people. And when
they say Deming's ideas wouldn't be any good they actually could be right.
Not because Deming was wrong, but because their current systems would not
accept nor accommodate Deming's ideas.

My response - Granted that Dr. Deming rose to a point where he could pick
and choose his clients.  Rightfully so, he would only take on a client if it
was the "top" of the corporation who would be involved.  Very few of us can
presently coopt such a clientele.  Oh, perhaps Mark Graham Brown and the Six
Sigma Folks, but very few in the Deming community.

For myself, I did have (I have found out years later) some support at the
top (Bill Cooper has some of those stories) that at least protected my job
during the initial years of high risk.  But much of it was unbeknownst to
me.

I do think it possible to create change from within.  Might not be fast, but
can be done.  I have found Tom Peters writings on the subject to be
worthwhile (http://www.tompeters.com).  Tom says:

	"I have three action strategies for survival in the new world of
work: 
	Brand Yourself 
	Act Like a Professional Service Firm 
	Do WOW! Projects "

I believe (and this also comes out in discussion on ASQNET, the American
Society for Quality discussion pages) you must be willing to take a risk.  I
remain convinced that if I had not taken the risks, I would have been laid
off eventually as not being needed.  It may actually help to have been in a
government bureaucracy, as the bureaucracy was unable to deal with what I
was doing with clients within the system.  Maybe we haven't completely
"converted" Hanford, but there are pockets and we definitely are safer and
gaining higher operational quality as a result.



Steve Prevette
Site Technical Authority for Statistical Trending
Environment, Safety and Health
Fluor Hanford, A Fluor Global Services Company
ASQ Certified Quality Engineer
steven_s_prevette@rl.gov
509-373-9371