Am I on the Right Track?*

[David Kerridge <dfkerridge@mac.com>]

John McConnell's student, wishing to learn about the Deming Management
Philosophy,  read books or papers by the following authors:

> Shewhart
> Deming
> Juran
> Ishikawa
> Grant
> Feigenbaum
> Tribus
> Scherkenbach
The student remarked:

> A brief perusal of the work of these men showed that two common themes kept
> recurring, understanding and reducing variation and systems thinking.
That is good thinking, but surely these ideas are not in any sense
specific to Deming. They are common to all theories of management,
in some way or other, though this may not be stated so clearly.

Without some theory that makes the whole work together, there
is no system, just a collection of individuals. The simplest and
oldest system of management can be summed up as "Do what
you are told and don't argue".

And variation usually adds to costs, and makes life more
complicated for management, even when customers want it.
Hence Henry Ford's rule

"They can have any colour they like, so long as it's black."

ISO9000 is a good illustration of  "Do what you are told"
and reducing variation, in this case by regulation.

So the student has done very well to recognise two key themes.
Now he should be encouraged to try to work out what is
special about the Deming approach to them.

The list of authors is interesting, including some who disagreed
with Deming. Perhaps it would be easier for the student if this
was made clearer, by including some, like F W Taylor, in which
the contrast is easier to see.

It is always difficult to draw the right balance between setting
a student an interesting challenge, and asking something so
difficult that I for one would certainly have failed at that stage.


--
Best wishes

David

dfkerridge@mac.com

[Moderator's Note: For an interesting treatment of the differences between Deming and Fredrick Taylor,
I can recommend "Deming's Profound Changes - When Will the Sleeping Giant Awaken" by Ken Delavigne
and DENizen Dan Robertson - ISBN 0-13-292690-3  ]