Advice Needed from Deming Group.

[Macrossen@ra.rockwell.com]

Hello Denizens. I am pretty excited about having an opportunity to meet
with executive management at my company and present information about the
shortcomings of  incentive and "pay for performance" programs.  I work for
a sizeable manufacturer who has been fostering such programs for many
years.

There are three of us Deming supporters at my company that I am aware of.
Two are well respected managers.  They will present the information.  I am
there in support.  We feel pretty good about presenting the theory and
providing examples.  However, we anticipate certain questions that we know
can take some  of the steam out of the message.  I need your help with the
following.

1.    It seems that whenever upper management sends out surveys to the
employees,  a summary of results points to "poor reward and recognition".
I think part of it is due to how the question is framed.  Also, if I am
just shooting the breeze with the guy on the receiving dock, or the repair
person, they will come out and say "they need to reward more, or create
more incentives".  The message to management is that everybody feels a
better incentive program is needed.  My feeling is that we are in a state
of awareness where "we don't know that we don't know".   I worry that when
this point is brought up we will come across  as saying "they don't know
what is good for them".    How do we avoid this?
2.    I know when Dr. Deming was asked "so what do we do about it?" he
would basically reply "stop".  I believe I saw one video where he actually
did mention a couple possibilities on replacing pay for performance with
something related to years of service.  The message was that not all
companies will have the same program for pay, nor should they.  The key
message was that Pay for performance and Numerical quotas were increasing
variation among workers and destroying morale, so you should quit.  I am
curious, however, if I could have some ideas of what other companies have
done as examples that it CAN be done, not necessarily that it should be
copied.  Could you please share examples?
3.    One of the Denizens recommended the book "Profit Beyond Measure".  I
am halfway through and find it fascinating.  Management by Means (MBM) is
recommended as opposed to Management by Results (MBR).  I think this fits
well with several of Deming's points.  According to the book, Toyota did
not have the numerical monthly quotas for shipments.  The focus was on the
work. I know that Deming worked with the Japanese industry and government
and is held in high regard.  Do the most successful Japanese companies
really follow these theories to this day?  Are there any US companies worth
mentioning?  I read somewhere that Florida Power and Light followed
Deming's Theories (for the most part).

Perhaps that is too much for one posting.  I look forward to your replies.


Mike Crossen
Sr. Process Quality Engineer