Re: Deming and accountability

[TQNELSON@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/6/1999 8:56:38 PM Pacific Daylight Time, FVoehl@AOL.COM 
writes:

<< Had they taken the one unexplained failure theory to heart and abandoned 
the 
 theory,  >>

But they DID! A theory leads to prediction. Each time Edison made a 
prediction, he then tested it, and each time it failed he revised it, changed 
the structure, voltage, etc., of the bulb to be tested. He did not keep 
repeating the same failed test time, after time, after time. He did exactly 
as WED said, implementing in fact, long before the formal wording, the PDSA 
cycle.

One reason this may seem difficult to many people is that there are levels of 
theory and sub-theory, just as there are levels of systems and subsystems. 
Edison had a main theory of "What and Why" and this, eventually proved valid. 
But he had a sub-theory of "Where, When, and How" that failed and needed 
revising for each of those failures. He had no problem with this. Do we?

Del Nelson
American River College

When "We, the People..." have been replaced
by dollars, profits, and greed,
It is time to start over
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