William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and consultant. He was a master of creating systems for business improvement.

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know
what you’re doing.”

In his 1986 book, Out of the Crisis, Deming described 14 points for Management. These 14 points were the foundation of what we now call Total Quality Management (TQM). These principles are an essential foundation for businesses of any size. Number of employees, number of clients, and revenue volume are not criteria or constraints to implementing these processes in business.

In The New Economics Deming wrote:

“The prevailing style of management must undergo transformation. A system cannot understand itself. The transformation requires a view from outside.”

Again in Out of the Crisis, he said:

“The 14 points for management follow naturally as application, for transformation from the present style of management to one of optimization.”

Deming says:

“It will not suffice merely to solve problems, big or little. Adoption and action of the 14 points are a signal that the management intend to stay in business and aim to protect investors and jobs. The 14 points apply anywhere, to small organizations as well as to large ones, to the service industry as well as to manufacturing.”

My simplified version of the 14 points:

1. Create constancy of purpose focused on improving product and service, with the aim to become competitive, stay in business, and provide jobs.
2. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.
3. Instead of depending on oversight to achieve quality, eliminate the need for inspection and close supervision by building a standard of high quality into the product in the first place.
4. Instead of buying solely based on price, change the objective to awarding contracts/hiring outside service providers based on the goal of minimizing total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, built on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
6. Institute training on the job and continuous.
7. Institute leadership in everyone. The aim of supervision should be to help people at all levels as well as machines and gadgets to do a better job.
8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
9. Break down barriers between departments. People must work as a team, to foresee problems and solve them for the company.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets that create adversarial relationships. Most of the causes of low quality and low productivity are in the system being used.
    • Instead of work standards, substitute leadership.
    • Instead of management by objective (MBO), or management by numbers, substitute leadership.
11. Instill in your team the right to pride of workmanship. Shift supervisor responsibility from sheer numbers to quality.
12. Institute the right to pride of workmanship for both management and engineering (e.g., abolish annual or merit rating and management by objective).
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody’s job.

To stay in business, every business must commit to constant transformation and evolution. Do you intend to stay in business? If you do, pick one of Deming’s 14 points to apply in your business now. Decide how you will implement that one point. Look at the results. Then take the next step to transform your management for optimization. For your clients and your team, lead by example.