W. Edwards Deming Quotes And Sayings

William Edwards Deming was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant. Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical physics, he helped develop the sampling techniques still used by the U.S. Department of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Deming made a significant contribution to Japan’s reputation for innovative, high-quality products, and for its economic power. He is regarded as having had more impact on Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage.

Quality Is Pride Of Workmanship.

A Bad System Will Beat A Good Person Every Time.

People With Targets And Jobs Dependent Upon Meeting Them Will Probably Meet The Targets - Even If They Have To Destroy The Enterprise To Do It.

Research Shows That The Climate Of An Organization Influences An Individual's Contribution Far More Than The Individual Himself.

Innovation Comes From The Producer - Not From The Customer.

Declining Productivity And Quality Means Your Unit Production Costs Stay High But You Don't Have As Much To Sell. Your Workers Don't Want To Be Paid Less, So To Maintain Profits, You Increase Your Prices. That's Inflation.

I Predicted In 1950 That In Five Years, Manufacturers The World Over Would Be Screaming For Protection. It Took Only Four Years.

The Prevailing - And Foolish - Attitude Is That A Good Manager Can Be A Good Manager Anywhere, With No Special Knowledge Of The Production Process He's Managing. A Man With A Financial Background May Know Nothing About Manufacturing Shoes Or Cars, But He's Put In Charge Anyway.

Rational Behavior Requires Theory. Reactive Behavior Requires Only Reflex Action.

Learning Is Not Compulsory... Neither Is Survival.

We Are Here To Make Another World.

You Should Not Ask Questions Without Knowledge.

If You Don't Understand How To Run An Efficient Operation, New Machinery Will Just Give You New Problems Of Operation And Maintenance. The Sure Way To Increase Productivity Is To Better Administrate Man And Machine.

If You Do Not Know How To Ask The Right Question, You Discover Nothing.

When A System Is Stable, Telling The Worker About Mistakes Is Only Tampering.

What Should Be The Aim Of Management? What Is Their Job? Quality Is The Responsibility Of The Top People. Its Origin Is In The Boardroom. They Are The Ones Who Decide.

In 1945, The World Was In A Shambles. American Companies Had No Competition. So Nobody Really Thought Much About Quality. Why Should They? The World Bought Everything America Produced. It Was A Prescription For Disaster.

Customer Expectations? Nonsense. No Customer Ever Asked For The Electric Light, The Pneumatic Tire, The Vcr, Or The Cd. All Customer Expectations Are Only What You And Your Competitor Have Led Him To Expect. He Knows Nothing Else.

I Am Forever Learning And Changing.

No One Knows The Cost Of A Defective Product - Don't Tell Me You Do. You Know The Cost Of Replacing It, But Not The Cost Of A Dissatisfied Customer.

Whenever There Is Fear, You Will Get Wrong Figures.

Quality Is Everyone's Responsibility.

Hold Everybody Accountable? Ridiculous!

Lack Of Knowledge... That Is The Problem.

It Is Not Enough To Do Your Best; You Must Know What To Do, And Then Do Your Best.

The Emphasis Should Be On Why We Do A Job.

Any Manager Can Do Well In An Expanding Market.

American Management Thinks That They Can Just Copy From Japan. But They Don't Know What To Copy.

The Result Of Long-term Relationships Is Better And Better Quality, And Lower And Lower Costs.

The Prevailing System Of Management Has Crushed Fun Out Of The Workplace.

The Big Problems Are Where People Don't Realise They Have One In The First Place.

People Don't Like To Make Mistakes.

My Mother Was My Biggest Role Model. She Taught Me To Hate Waste. We Never Wasted Anything.

You Can Not Define Being Exactly On Time.

Eliminate Numerical Quotas, Including Management By Objectives.

In Japan, A Company Worker's Position Is Secure. He Is Retrained For Another Job If His Present Job Is Eliminated By Productivity Improvement.

'Quality' Means What Will Sell And Do A Customer Some Good - At Least Try To.

If You Can't Describe What You Are Doing As A Process, You Don't Know What You're Doing.

Export Anything To A Friendly Country Except American Management.

Profit In Business Comes From Repeat Customers, Customers That Boast About Your Project Or Service, And That Bring Friends With Them.

It Is Not Necessary To Change. Survival Is Not Mandatory.

The Average American Worker Has Fifty Interruptions A Day, Of Which Seventy Percent Have Nothing To Do With Work.

All Anyone Asks For Is A Chance To Work With Pride.