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 Great book on the theory but dated now on the companies.
This is a good primer book about Deming but, as other reviews mentioned, not the end all of Deming's work, plus it lacks focus on specific topics. As another review mentioned the Japanese got the whole idea that products/services should not just be "produced" but should "wow" the customer and create desire. This lacks within the global manufacturing environment today.
One of the greatest blind alleys of Deming ideas was that he could not forsee the global shift of production based on cost of labor. He mentioned that lowest cost suppliers/providers should not be taken but that the buyer company should created relationships with suppliers to work with the buying company. Unfortunately the global manufacturing market has demonstrated that manufacturing companies want to have their cake and eat it too. The constant drive to reduce cost inevitability drove companies offshore from their native countries into the arms of near slave wage paying countries such as China and India which lack ethical, environmental, and employment laws. The results of this are in evidence in highly publicized stories about medicine, human and pet food, and toy coating contamination trends.
I also wanted to address that some most of the companies and organizations profiled in the book seemed to have not had the greatest go of it in the 20 plus years since the book was written.
Ford Motor Company: Still in operation, well documented multiple up and downs since the book was written.
GOAL Growth Opportunity Alliance of Greater Lawrence (Lawerence, MA):no current info found, unable to determine if still functioning or not, may not be functioning due to the exit of tech manufacturing from the area and lack of support,no web presence.
Malden Mills: later invented Polartec fleece, great stories related to 1995 fire but bankruptcies due to various reasons, morphed to global company
Honeywell Information Systems, Lawerence (MA) Manufacturing Operations: no current info found, unable to determine if still functioning or not,no web presence.
AT&T Merrimack Valley Works, North Andover MA: shut down after various down sizings and final ownership by Alcatel-Lucent. Production exported to Italy and plant was to be finally closed in 2008. Now a mixed used industrial facility.
Philadelphia (PA) Area Council for Excellence PACE: still around, not sure of the level of functioning, no web presence.
Janbridge,Inc: apparently defunct, later owners had documented legal and tax issues, former president/owner Mary Ann Gould is still active in quality issues and consulting.
Microcircuit Engineering Corporation, Mt. Holly, NJ: no current info found, unable to determine if still functioning or not,no web presence.
Campbell Soup Company, Camden, NJ: Still in operation, well documented since the book was written.
It seems as if Ford, Campbells, and Polartec(Malden Mills) are the only companies still in existance with Malden Mills/Polartec being the one that most espoused the Deming ideal to improve and be a different company than it was before even if it meant undoing the entire prior profile of the company. The AT&T Merrimack Valley Works issue and reports related to its shut down shows how the most efficient quality systems could not help the average worker maintain employment even though Deming says that the employees should shift around within the company. This continued employment obviously doesn't happen within a global manufacturing environment and ownership by multiple entities.
Overall the book is a decent but dated reference and resource tool.
 Deming's message was profound
It is said that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Giants like Frederick Taylor, the Toyoda Family, Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo, and of course Edwards Deming. The trouble is that we too often mistake the content for the context, or as Taylor said, the mechanism for the essence.
Mary Walton achieved in this book a rare insight into the essence of Deming's approach. Having lived and worked in industry in Japan and knowing the difference between Western and Eastern approaches I can only say that this book written more than 20 years ago is as important today as the day it was written.
People who truly want to understand Deming's message, the context or the essence of that message, ought to beg, steal, borrow, or preferably buy a copy of this book. We can't go back in time and interrogate the participants, but we have a faithful record here.
A Prophetic Message that Americans Still Don't Understand
When I purchased this book in the late 80's I thoroughly enjoyed the story-telling approach of this book. It was a philosophical awakening. Oh, I'd heard of Deming, studied statistical process control, and even read portions of his famous "14 Points for Managers." I often wondered why these ideas never caught on in American.
Later, while working for a Japanese company, Kao, I had what alcoholics called a moment of clairvoyance. An American manager and a Japanese manager were jointly leading a meeting to find the cause of a production problem. The American manager lunged into the old familiar blame game. The Japanese manager calmly turned to his colleague and said politely, "The purpose of our meeting is to find the cause of the problem and develop countermeasures (a Japanese management term)." This brought this book clearly in focus for me. The Japanese got Deming because they were focused on the process of making a better product. American managers, especially MBAs, are focused on the product: selling it. They don't understand the process and won't bother to learn it let the engineers do that. The Japanese and Germans strive to continually improve products beyond the control limits set by the customers; they understand the value of providing a product a customer can't live without. It is my opinion that the Japanese methods have gone well beyond Deming. I don't think recent attempts such as ISO-9000 and six-sigma can match these revolutionary, philosophical changes. Deming had it right in the beginning: statistical process control alone won't improve quality. That's all ISO-9000 and six-sigma are: tools for engineers, not managers.
After the biographical information on Dr. Deming, Mary Walton sits through one of Deming's leadership courses. The red bead experiment was an enlightening, and humbling experience for managers who attended these seminars. It gave them an appreciation for how their people, working with poor equipment and inadequate instructions turn out their products. This situation is familiar to most engineers. The author's writing style is very personable with text that is chock full of quotes from Deming himself and others.
From there, the book follows a logical pattern through all fourteen points and seven deadly sins. Then, it's on to numerous examples of how American companies such as Ford Motor Company and Campbell Soups have adopted, or attempted to adopt, Deming management method.
This books is dog-eared now after 20-years for faithful service. It has been my guide through many management positions. After years of thought on the subject, I feel that Deming's methods are an ideal and that companies must strive to follow them or ignore at their peril.
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Outstanding Book
"Deming Management Method" is an outstanding book on the quality management methods advocated by one of the best known quality gurus of the last century. Deming became famous for his teaching on quality that transformed Japan from being a country known for producing shoddy products to one that achieved outstanding success in the 1980s and 1990s.
The author, a close associate of Deming over many years, methodically traces the life and teachings of Deming, explaining his famous 14 points and how they can be used to transform a company into an excellent organisation that produces high quality goods and services to meet customer needs, using motivated people.
The book is an important addition to the library of any manager that wishes to see his/her company achieve success. The readers would also benefit greatly by also reading works by quality gurus that include Crosby, Juran, Ishikawa and Deming himself "Out of Crisis".
Great Intro to Deming
Mary Walton presents a detailed biography of the Guru of Quality, Edward Deming, based on her lengthy involvement with Deming and his quality training programs. Also, this book features an introduction by Deming.The majority of this book is dedicated to Walton's interpretation of Deming's 14 points, which encourages organizations to: have a constancy of purpose, adopt a new philosophy, not rely on mass inspections, not to accept contracts based on price alone, constantly improve processes, train and retrain, institute solid leadership, drive out fear in the workplace, breakdown departmental barriers, eliminate slogans, eliminate quotas, remove barriers to pride in workmanship, and take action to transform the organization. Walton's book does a good job of presenting Deming's theories, which I highly recommend to newcomers to the quality movement. Those experienced in this area and familiar with Deming's 14 points may not benefit as much from this book, but may enjoy a different take on Deming's ideas and somewhat dated examples.
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(based on 10 reviews)
