Shewhart's ability to communicate

["Mark Wilcox" <mark.wilcox@homecall.co.uk>]

 Following my previous post (and to repeat some of earlier mantras) I
believe Shewhart was a master with words.  Just over 5 years ago I was
fortunate enough to be able to spend some time in the Library of Congress=
,
Washington with the aim of reading some of Dr Deming's papers. The volume=
 is
overwhelming and would take several months to plough through. However, I
noted a couple of things on that visit vis-a-vis Shewhart's ability to
communicate.  The following quote may have come from the ASQC August 1967
Vol 24 No 2 but the pencil notes have faded overtime ( you're not allowed
pens in the library!)=0D
 =0D
Dr Deming on Dr Shewhart " Although his explanations could be so simple a=
nd
clear in a face to face discussion, his greatest papers remain as difficu=
lt
for the reader as they were for him to write.  As he told me once, when h=
e
writes, he must make it foolproof.  I replied in a particular instance th=
at
he made it so foolproof that no one could understand it"=0D
 =0D
My view is that Shewhart took extreme care to articulate his statistical
method to avoid it being miscontrued as a static thesis.  In other words,=
 if
the basic premise (or my lense)  is that the world is constantly changing
and by definition, in flux, we have to construct a discourse that portray=
s
the world as we see it.   Shewhart refers to a book by Stuart Chase "The
Tyranny Words" which is clearly aimed at this problem.  He also refers in
the final footnote in the 1939 book to "Foundations of the Theory of Sign=
s"
by C W Morris which helps us understand the significance of signs and
symbols in scientific discourse.  I have both these books in my collectio=
n
and would recommend others to try to understand where Shewhart was coming
from and the pains he went to in his attempt to communicate a complex set=
 of
ideas.   I would argue that many post- shewhart writers of quality
management text books have failed to grasp this basic premis and therefor=
e
set off either in the wrong direction or aimless.  Hence the shed fulls o=
f
management claptrap that filled the shelves in the 1980s and 90s and the=20
classical statistical' works that failed to see Shewhart's pragmatic
interpretation of statistical theory in the 1920s.  =0D
 =0D
A more uptodate view on this problem is articulated by the late Barry
Richmond who worked with the HPS's ithink software, and published a very
accessible book "An Introduction to Systems Thinking"   Part 2 of the boo=
k
is entitled Learning to "Write" Using the Language of Systems Thinking.=20
Well worth a read to help fine tune our use of language and thinking.=0D
 =0D
Regards=0D
Mark=0D
 =0D
 =0D
Dr Mark Wilcox=0D
19 South Lane =0D
Holmfirth=0D
West Yorkshire=0D
HD9 1HN=0D
 =0D
Tel 01484 - 686313=0D
Mob: 07931 991485=0D
mark.wilcox@homecall.co.uk