Out of the Crisis

Deming's fourteen points were famous in the 1980s when they were imported in Japan. Deming helped to lead the Japanese in an economic surge that was felt worldwide. The Japanese were outdoing the United States, especially in engineering. Deming's fourteen points were given as a way to elucidate steps to proceed in the U.S.

What strikes me is that pride in one's work is central to the whole gambit. Without the worker taking pride in her/his work, then there is nothing to be gained. This, not economic incentives, is the core of Deming's work. Do not rob the worker of his pride, or you risk causing quality of production to decline. This simple observation - of what one takes pride in - is helpful whenever I analyze how to deal with others' show more work.

Also prominent within this treatise is the idea of statistical control. When one's work reaches the bounds within the upper limit and lower limit of control, then one can work freely towards decreasing variability and increasing reliability of one's product. This, in essence, is work. This is how to improve one's work each day.

Deming's work was probably revolutionary back in his day (the 1980s). Today, however, most of his lessons have been absorbed by management of enterprises worldwide. They are commonly observed among many product-oriented companies. It is nice to read about them within their historical context. Most of his ideas are still useful in business today. show less

. Demings tells American management what they are doing wrong and what they can do fix it. That sounds like a lot of hubris, except that Deming is the guy credited with turning around the Japanese manufacturing industry after World War 2, so he knows what he's talking about. Demings emphasizes the importance of statistical process control, and how manufacturing problems are almost always attributable to the system, and not the workers. He speaks out against short-term objectives that end up being harmful in the long term (e.g. quotas, management by objective, increasing stock value in short term). If you are interested in "quality", this is a book to read.

I've seen countless references to this business classic and finally read it based on a survey of the best business books. The principals are timeless and worthy of any manager's time to read and understand. Fortunately, I also found the concepts to appear dates, in part because so many of them have been incorporated into our thinking.

Favorite quote (p. 53): "The greatest waste in America is failure to use the abilities of people."

The origin of the species.

I included this book in my book: The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. www.100bestbiz.com.

The origin of the species.