Edwards Deming’s 14 Points and a Business Management Governance System

Dr. Edwards Deming emphasized that the key to quality improvement was in the hands of management. Dr. Deming demonstrated that most problems are the result of the system and not of employees. Deming used statistical quality control techniques to identify special and common cause conditions, in which common cause was the result of systematic variability, while special cause was erratic and unpredictable. Deming described the seven deadly diseases of the workplace and fourteen points for management.

Deming made some very good management points that are applicable to what should be done today. However, Deming did not have a management system for implementing his philosophy. After listing Deming’s 14 points, I will describe a long-lasting 21st century governance system for the achievement of his 14 points.

The following are Dr. Deming’s original fourteen points for management:

1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business and to provide jobs.

2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.

3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.

4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, 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.

7. Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and 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 in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team to foresee problems of production and use that may be encountered with the product or service.

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity.

11a. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.

11b. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.

12a. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker(s) of their right to pride of workmanship.

12b. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship.

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.

A 21st business governance management system framework for achievement of Deming’s 14 points is described in an Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) system article. The 9-step business management system described in this article can become the cornerstone for the making of good, healthy analytical determined organizational decisions. A framework is provided in this IEE system for no-nonsense policy creation that truly integrate scorecards, strategic planning, business improvement, and control, which benefits the enterprise as a whole. IEE goes beyond Lean Six Sigma and the Balanced Scorecard.

In the “Integrated Enterprise Excellence” 4 book-volume series there is described the how-to mechanics of creating an IEE system framework so that there is a blending of innovation with analytics and risk assessments so that the organization as a whole benefits.