Re: WED's 1950 seminars

["William J. Latzko" <latzko@worldnet.att.net>]

At 18:01 9/1/1999 +0100, John Seddon wrote:
>I have been on holiday and have to confess to taking one work book (4 days
>with WED, enjoyable read) and two thoughts struck me:
>
>First: What did WED teach in 1950 in Japan?  Apparently the seminars were
>documented and from the sales the Deming prize was born.
>
>Was this translated into English?  Does anyone have a copy?

The lecture notes were translated into English and edited by Deming. I have
a copy of this 103 page book. It is copyrighted by JUSE. They may have
copies or there may be copies in the possession of the WED Institute. 

>Second: What was WED doing before the 1980 'event' that led to him creating
>the four-day seminar?  By 'event' I mean the TV show that 'launched' him.

Dr. Deming taught at New York University and consulted in statistics.

Dr. Deming gave a number of seminars in the 1980 period. One seminar was
based on his book on sampling. I believe that it was J. Perkins of George
Washington University that persuaded Ed to talk about his management
theories. The early sessions were three days long but soon changed to four
days because of the amount of material that needed to be covered. Dr.
Deming believed in continual, never ending improvement. This held true for
his seminars. As he became aware of new notions that he found worthwhile to
incorporate in his lectures, he changed it. 

Dave Saunders and I found it hard to keep up with his changes. At times, we
felt that the drafts of our book, that we sent to him, caused him to modify
his presentation. I remember that at one point we sent him an outline of
what was covered by him and he returned it to us with a note, "We have to
rethink this order." Our book follows his final version as approved by him.

Bill Latzko
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