W. Edwards Deming, is the renowned international consultant whose work led the Japanese industry towards new principles of administration (Management), revolutionizing its quality and productivity in what became known as the “Japanese Miracle”; Adoption expanded rapidly in the United States industry and subsequently in practice worldwide.
Among multiple contributions, one of the most important was his 14 Recommendations to Directors, known as Deming's 14 points.
Deming's 14 points, have been and are the basis of the transformation of companies, companies or businesses that actually seek transformation to enter a process of continuous improvement (and I mean really; because the paradigms of managers are the main obstacle to enter the processes of continuous improvement and most of the time only things appear, without making the necessary changes).
Deming tells us in his 14 points, that it is not enough just to solve small or big problems, the adoption and the resulting action of the 14 points are required, which are also aimed at protecting investors and the permanence and creation of jobs. Such a system was the basis of the lessons for senior management.
The 14 points apply everywhere, to large or small organizations, to service or transformation companies and as time has passed they have been carried out to any type of organization with very good results.
The 14 points:
1.- Create a record in the purpose of improving the product and service, with the goal of becoming competitive, staying in the market and creating new jobs.
2.- Adopt the philosophy of quality, We are in an economic era of competitiveness, we cannot continue living within the style commonly accepted by the traditional administration, nor with the commonly accepted levels of delays, errors and defective products.
3.- Discontinue dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for mass inspection by building product quality during the process, first.
4.- End the practice of doing business based on the sale price. Instead, minimize the total cost.
5.- Constantly and permanently improve production and service systems to improve quality and productivity and, therefore, reduce costs.
6.- Institute training in the position.
7.- Instruct supervision, the goal of supervision should be to help people, machines and accessories, to perform a better job. Supervision of managers as well as production workers requires a thorough review.
8.- Eliminate fear, so that everyone can work effectively for the company.
9.- Break down the barriers between departments. People employed in research, design, sales, production, etc. They must work as a team to anticipate problems in production and in the use of the product or in the delivery of the service.
10.- Eliminate “slogans”, exhortations and goals imposed on the workers, asking them for “Zero defects” or new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create attitudes of animosity, since most of the causes of low quality and low productivity are part of the system and are therefore outside the domain of the worker.
11.- Eliminate work standards that prescribe daily numerical quotas. Replace them with a supervision of help and service.
12.- a) Eliminate the barriers that rob the worker of the right to feel proud of his work. The responsibility of supervisors should be shifted from a numerical approach to a quality one.
b) Eliminate the barriers that rob managers or engineers of the right to feel proud of their work. This means, among other things, abolishing performance appraisal and objective management.
13. Instruct a vigorous education and retraining program.
14.- Assign all company personnel the task of achieving the described transformation, which is everyone's task.
As we can see for managers it is not easy to enter the path outlined or recommended by Deming, and more when we are doing the opposite of his recommendations, we modify standards, we have numerical goals, we set very ambitious objectives, we continue to be foremen of the workers, we evaluate, etc. But things remain the same or worse.
Deming's 14 points tell us where we should change things for better results. Perhaps the directions have not analyzed or understood them because of the paradigm that "I am fine!". But in the following article we will analyze point by point making analyzes with current situations of practical cases.
