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“Beat the horses, and they will run faster—for a while.”
GENRE Management Guide, Philosophy (Non-Fiction)
AUTHOR W. Edwards Deming
PAGES 465
YEAR OF PUBLISH 1982
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
W. Edwards Deming was the student of Walter J Shwehart. After WWII, he was sent to Japan(1950) where he taught quality management and customer-centric business model. He was ignored in the US until the 1970s.
Japanese Science and Engineering (JUSE) established the annual Deming Prizes for contributions to characteristic and reliability of the product.
He is a globally acclaimed consultant whose work led Japanese industry into new principles of management and revolutionized their quality and productivity. The acceptance of Dr. Deming’s 14 points of management helped industry in the United States. In recognition of his contribution to the economy of Japan, the Union of Japanese Science and Engineering (JUSE) instituted the annual Deming Prizes for contributions to quality.
SUMMARY OF OUT OF THE CRISIS
The purpose of this book was the transformation of American management. It wasn't the job of reconstruction, or is it alteration. It requires a whole new structure, from foundation to upwards. The aim of the book was to supply the direction.
Deming proposes his famous theory 14 Points for Management. He argues that failure in management's planning brings out the loss of market, which brings out the loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by profits but by innovative plans to stay in the business, protect investments and provide more jobs, a complete transformation.
Unlike the conventional model based on mass production, Deming introduced a revolutionary approach of continual improvement. Now, the focus was shifted to customer feedback to re-design the process which conforms to the specifications of product or services.
General Electric was one of the earliest companies to successfully establish six sigma philosophy for quality management. It created the required competitive advantage against other players. Jack Welch, CEO of GE from 1981-1999, remained a firm believer of six sigma till the end of his career. Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control(DMAIC) methodology transformed GE to one of the most competitive companies in the world.
For the very first time, the traditional statistics of central tendency was questioned. The new discipline of quality management proposed that "variations are inherited trait of a process and cannot be removed". It was further classified into 'common cause' or 'special cause'. In order to improve the quality, enterprise must change their approach to minimize the variations under Upper Control Limit (UCL) and Lower Control Limit(LCL). The Statistical Process Control under Six Sigma projects gained global attention when the mathematical model proved 3.4 defects per 1 million output. Deming also considered service industries like hospitality, aviation and healthcare.
BOOK REVIEW OF OUT OF THE CRISIS
The reason I prefer reading non-fiction is to gain perspective. There are things beyond my frame of reference, and these books are somebody's life-long research. It must be difficult to compile all these experiments and thoughts in 500-600 pages. Sure, I may not become known as author, but my objective to get inside their head and look at the problem from their eyes.
What I particularly like about the book, is that while many of his points
may seem simple (and apparent to us today ), Deming account, in great comprehension, the
failures of business and how these 14 principles drive continuous improvement.
There are some great case studies and examples of business failure.
My final take; Out of Crisis has remained pertinent in the last three decades. I consider they will remain relevant for
decades to follow. If you aren't aware of quality management, you are missing something exceptional. I highly advise to read.
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