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demings 14 points
demings 14 points
Introduction
Introduction
As a project manager quality control can be an extremely difficult aspect of the job to monitor, control and repair. Things like absent management, disorganization or lack of initiative can completely derail the quality of a project. As project manager it’s your job to ensure all these different pieces of the puzzle click together. That’s why W. Edwards Deming came up with his 14 points for management. Deming was an extremely prominent management thinker who was educated as an electrical engineer, but also did work as a statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant. Having a resume this well rounded helped him become a leading figure in management during his time and he is credited with helping Japan rebuild after World War 2. I’d like to explain his 14 points so that hopefully any project managers reading can learn from his advice and become better leaders and make better products.
W Edwards Deming
Point 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.
This means making sure to always give consideration to the future. It can be very easy to get caught up in immediate pressing concerns and issues but ONLY resolving short term problems can have serious consequences for the success of the current project and future projects.
Point 2: adopt the new philosophy.
This point stresses the importance of being ready for change. In a business environment change is inevitable. Whether it’s a new government policy or a change within the company or a million other possible disruptions, being ready and willing to embrace this new change quickly is vital to ensuring change doesn’t derail your project.
Point 3: stop depending on inspections.
This point emphasizes the need to have quality in mind for every step of your project. If you wait for timely, and expensive inspections to reveal all of the project's flaws you’re already less efficient than someone who saw these problems coming in advance and acted accordingly.
Point 4: Use a single supplier for any one item.
Deming says this because a key aspect of quality is consistency, so having variation in what you bring into the project will inevitably bring variation in the output. This point also emphasizes working closely with your suppliers to ensure that the supplies you take in are the highest quality possible.
Point 5: improve constantly and forever. Complacency is the enemy of progress. It can be easy to lose the drive to improve your product in the best of times. Deming suggests that checking and improving systems often as well as providing extensive education for employees will improve the quality of work drastically.
Point 6: use training on the job. This means promoting a culture of learning and continuous improvement in your workplace. Training employees consistently as well as building a foundation of common knowledge all employees can work from will speed up communication and save a ton of time and confusion when working.
Point 7: Implement Leadership
A big part of implementing leadership is humanizing your employees. It’s important to not see your employees as simply tools for reaching quotas and meeting deadlines, instead try to maximize each employee's potential by providing help and resources when needed and knowing and understanding your team. This will raise morale in the team as well as help people who are struggling catch up and be more productive.
Point 8: Eliminate Fear
When team members feel like saying the wrong thing will get them in trouble or get them laughed at or judged they tend to not speak as much. This can result in team members hanging on to wrong ideas and not having them challenged just because they are afraid to ask. Deming suggests that we should totally eliminate that fear from the workplace and create a welcoming environment where nobody is afraid to speak their minds.
Point 9: Break down barriers between departments
It’s vital that each department understands more than just their piece of the puzzle. When each department has a holistic view of the project it helps everyone involved complete their tasks in a way that most aligns with the overall vision of the project. Deming also emphasizes the need to collaborate and come to a consensus among the departments rather than compromising.
Point 10: Get rid of unclear slogans
In this point Deming means to encourage managers to pick meaningful slogans that say something about you and your business instead of picking generic ones. He also emphasizes the need to back up that slogan with actions and not just words.
Point 11 Shift from Management by Objectives: Replace the focus solely on numerical targets with a comprehensive examination of the entire process. Deming warned against setting production targets, as they can lead to high output but low quality.
Point 12: Eliminate Barriers to Work Pride: Foster an environment where every worker can take pride in their work without being subjected to rankings or comparisons. This encourages a sense of ownership and quality consciousness among all employees.
Point 13: Emphasize Education and Self-Improvement: Focus on enhancing existing skills and encourage continuous learning to adapt to future challenges and changes. This helps build a more versatile and improvement-oriented workforce.
Point 14: Make Transformation a Collective Responsibility: Engage every individual in the organization to contribute towards achieving higher quality. Analyze each small step in the context of the larger organizational goals, emphasizing the cumulative impact of incremental improvements.
Dr. Deming stressed that the most important factor to improving quality was good management. Most of these points may seem pretty obvious but the hard part is doing these things and doing them consistently. Deming Undoubtedly changed the world with these 14 points for management. If you as a project manager want to take your organization and products to the next level keeping these points in mind will go a long way to ensure the enduring quality and success of projects you oversee.
Sources:
https://www.uthsc.edu/its/business-productivity-solutions/lean-uthsc/deming.php
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