Quality: More Than Just High Manufacturing Standards
By Dr. Arch Barnes – Feb 1, 2010
In American manufacturing circles four decades ago, there emerged and rapidly spread the realization that quality products come from attention to things other than the manufacturing standards themselves. Many management scholars, and perhaps most business leaders, will tell you that Edward Deming, beginning in Japan in the 1950’s, and later influencing American industry broadly, led this revelation. I feel strongly, however, that Deming rode the wave, rather than drove it.
How can that be?
Well, first of all, let me refresh the reader’s memory by summarizing the famous Deming Fourteen Points:
Very little is wrong with that. But Deming was not the originator of this approach to the notion of an enriched culture and its role in ensuring high quality products and services. Beginning in the 1920’s, (see the landmark studies done at the Hawthorne plant of General Electric Co.) the newly emerging business schools across America slowly fomented a revolution in thinking about the workplace and the workers... but almost exclusively this was heeded in academe.
Sadly, but not surprisingly, businesses themselves did not pay much attention to this new theory of organization; not for decades and not ever with a full commitment to it. So Deming found a haven for these ideals in Japan, for two very powerful reasons: First, by the end of World War Two, Japanese industry had been completely decimated… so a ground-up renovation of some sort was needed. Secondly, the Japanese psyche was better suited to the notion of teamwork and cohesion. Sociologists have partly explained this, using the notion of homogeneity of the culture, the inevitable reality of an island nation. By comparison, the American culture was probably the most heterogeneous in the world and the health of its industrial system was robust. Furthermore, individualism thrived here, in part because of our vast land, property rights, etc., but also because it is inculcated into our psyche and is, between the lines, built into our Constitution.
Changing a culture, any culture, takes a great deal of time and effort, but it also must be done in ways that reflect the realities of current circumstances and existing conditions. Real change needs powerful motivation, and a great deal of patience. Offering Fourteen Points to guide such change is not much different from doing what Deming (in item 10) urged us to avoid: slogans and exhortations. Permanent change involves much risk-taking, sincere trust-building and more than anything else, a willingness to accept glacial progress. Not an easy collection of attributes and methodologies, especially when facing the ravages of competition and the need to show profits now.
But if you are in a position that seems to scream for a change of culture in your organization, what can be done and how can it be brought about?
Such change involves many steps, so I will deliver to readers one step at a time… others to follow in subsequent issues of this magazine The first step ─ really just a precondition ─ is the most critical of all, it is foundational: Make sure that everyone in the organization, especially all those in leadership positions “buys-in” to both the need for change, but also the desired outcomes in explicit terms (there’s no sense saying something catchy, slogan-like, such as “A Commitment to Quality,” which one organization I am familiar with developed as their guiding philosophy. That was as effective as making a New Year’s Resolution).
This precondition is tricky, for one obvious reason: Some people are merely compliant, will go along to get along. Others will be defiant, just for the hell of it. So if you are the agent of change, after you have made a thorough assessment of your current position in all its complexities and have discussed that assessment widely and often and reached genuine consensus, you must then do the difficult work of getting everyone enthused about a clear set of stated outcomes and a desired timeline that everyone can embrace. There’s absolutely no sense going ahead without this consensus. And by the way, if you set a timeline any less than two or three years to bring about the change you desire, you are deluding yourself.
In subsequent articles on this subject, I will offer more concrete suggestions. You will find that many of my points will build on some elements of Dr. Deming’s famous Fourteen Points… but they will be more in tune with today’s realities and will deal with the biggest challenge of all: overcoming the resistance to change that exists in any culture.
By Dr. Arch Barnes – Feb 1, 2010
In American manufacturing circles four decades ago, there emerged and rapidly spread the realization that quality products come from attention to things other than the manufacturing standards themselves. Many management scholars, and perhaps most business leaders, will tell you that Edward Deming, beginning in Japan in the 1950’s, and later influencing American industry broadly, led this revelation. I feel strongly, however, that Deming rode the wave, rather than drove it.
How can that be?
Well, first of all, let me refresh the reader’s memory by summarizing the famous Deming Fourteen Points:
- Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service.
- Adopt the new philosophy of leadership for change.
- Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.
- End the practice of buying based on price. Instead, minimize total cost.
- Improve constantly the system of production and constantly decrease costs.
- Institute training on the job.
- Remember that the aim of supervision should be to help people do a better job.
- Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
- Break down barriers between departments. All employees must work as a team.
- Eliminate slogans and targets exhorting zero defects and high productivity.
- Eliminate work standards (quotas) and MBO. Substitute leadership.
- Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride in workmanship.
- Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
- Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.
Very little is wrong with that. But Deming was not the originator of this approach to the notion of an enriched culture and its role in ensuring high quality products and services. Beginning in the 1920’s, (see the landmark studies done at the Hawthorne plant of General Electric Co.) the newly emerging business schools across America slowly fomented a revolution in thinking about the workplace and the workers... but almost exclusively this was heeded in academe.
Sadly, but not surprisingly, businesses themselves did not pay much attention to this new theory of organization; not for decades and not ever with a full commitment to it. So Deming found a haven for these ideals in Japan, for two very powerful reasons: First, by the end of World War Two, Japanese industry had been completely decimated… so a ground-up renovation of some sort was needed. Secondly, the Japanese psyche was better suited to the notion of teamwork and cohesion. Sociologists have partly explained this, using the notion of homogeneity of the culture, the inevitable reality of an island nation. By comparison, the American culture was probably the most heterogeneous in the world and the health of its industrial system was robust. Furthermore, individualism thrived here, in part because of our vast land, property rights, etc., but also because it is inculcated into our psyche and is, between the lines, built into our Constitution.
Changing a culture, any culture, takes a great deal of time and effort, but it also must be done in ways that reflect the realities of current circumstances and existing conditions. Real change needs powerful motivation, and a great deal of patience. Offering Fourteen Points to guide such change is not much different from doing what Deming (in item 10) urged us to avoid: slogans and exhortations. Permanent change involves much risk-taking, sincere trust-building and more than anything else, a willingness to accept glacial progress. Not an easy collection of attributes and methodologies, especially when facing the ravages of competition and the need to show profits now.
But if you are in a position that seems to scream for a change of culture in your organization, what can be done and how can it be brought about?
Such change involves many steps, so I will deliver to readers one step at a time… others to follow in subsequent issues of this magazine The first step ─ really just a precondition ─ is the most critical of all, it is foundational: Make sure that everyone in the organization, especially all those in leadership positions “buys-in” to both the need for change, but also the desired outcomes in explicit terms (there’s no sense saying something catchy, slogan-like, such as “A Commitment to Quality,” which one organization I am familiar with developed as their guiding philosophy. That was as effective as making a New Year’s Resolution).
This precondition is tricky, for one obvious reason: Some people are merely compliant, will go along to get along. Others will be defiant, just for the hell of it. So if you are the agent of change, after you have made a thorough assessment of your current position in all its complexities and have discussed that assessment widely and often and reached genuine consensus, you must then do the difficult work of getting everyone enthused about a clear set of stated outcomes and a desired timeline that everyone can embrace. There’s absolutely no sense going ahead without this consensus. And by the way, if you set a timeline any less than two or three years to bring about the change you desire, you are deluding yourself.
In subsequent articles on this subject, I will offer more concrete suggestions. You will find that many of my points will build on some elements of Dr. Deming’s famous Fourteen Points… but they will be more in tune with today’s realities and will deal with the biggest challenge of all: overcoming the resistance to change that exists in any culture.