Edwards Deming Quotes & Sayings

We know what we told him, but we don't know what he heard. — W. Edwards Deming

You can see from a flow diagram who depends on you and whom you can depend on. You can now take joy in your work. — W. Edwards Deming

A man who knows not his limitations is of no use to anyone. — W. Edwards Deming

Anybody can achieve gains in quality by slowing down production. That is not what we are talking about. — W. Edwards Deming

The most important measures are both unknown and unknowable. — W. Edwards Deming

The biggest cost of poor quality is when your customer buys it from someone else because they didn't like yours. — W. Edwards Deming

The big problems are where people don't realise they have one in the first place. — W. Edwards Deming

People care more for themselves when they contribute to the system. — W. Edwards Deming

Sub-optimization is when everyone is for himself. Optimization is when everyone is working to help the company. — W. Edwards Deming

If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing. — W. Edwards Deming

We are being ruined by the best efforts of people who are doing the wrong thing. — W. Edwards Deming

Learning is not compulsory ... neither is survival. — W. Edwards Deming

What we need to do is learn to work in the system, by which I mean that everybody, every team, every platform, every division, every component is there not for individual competitive profit or recognition, but for contribution to the system as a whole on a win-win basis. — W. Edwards Deming

A manager of people knows that in this stable state it is distracting to tell the worker about a mistake. — W. Edwards Deming

Knowledge is the key. — W. Edwards Deming

There must be consistency in direction. — W. Edwards Deming

The worker is not the problem. The problem is at the top! Management! — W. Edwards Deming

He that expects to quantify in dollars the gains that will accrue to a company year by year for a program for improvement of quality expounded in [Out of the Crisis] will suffer delusion. He should know before he starts that he will be able to quantify only a trivial part of the gain. — W. Edwards Deming

Management of outcomes may not be any more than a skill. It does not require knowledge. — W. Edwards Deming

Stamping out fires is a lot of fun, but it is only putting things back the way they were. — W. Edwards Deming

Eliminate numerical quotas, including Management by Objectives. — W. Edwards Deming

The transformation can only be accomplished by man, not by hardware (computers, gadgets, automation, new machinery). A company can not buy its way into quality. — W. Edwards Deming

You can expect what you inspect. — W. Edwards Deming

Forces of Destruction: grades in school, merit system, incentive pay, business plans, quotas. — W. Edwards Deming

The aim proposed here for any organization is for everybody to gain - stockholders, employees, suppliers, customers, community, the environment - over the long term. — W. Edwards Deming

You do not find knowledge in a dictionary, only information. — W. Edwards Deming

Quality begins with the intent, which is fixed by management. — W. Edwards Deming

If you don't understand how to run an efficient operation, new machinery will just give you new problems of operation and maintenance. The sure way to increase productivity is to better administrate man and machine. — W. Edwards Deming

In Japan, a company worker's position is secure. He is retrained for another job if his present job is eliminated by productivity improvement. — W. Edwards Deming

Possibly the biggest issue, however, is that performance appraisals focus managers attention on precisely the wrong thing: individual people. As W. Edwards Deming, the father of the quality movement, taught a long time ago, company performance often results more from variations in systems than from the individuals doing the work. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Confusing common causes with special causes will only make things worse. — W. Edwards Deming

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. — W. Edwards Deming

Everyone is a customer for somebody, or a supplier to somebody. — W. Edwards Deming

The customer is the most important part of the production line. — W. Edwards Deming

You must have a supplier relationship of constant improvement. — W. Edwards Deming

Monetary rewards are not a substitute for intrinsic motivation. — W. Edwards Deming

It would be a mistake to export western management to a friendly country. — W. Edwards Deming

A system can not understand itself. — W. Edwards Deming

No requirement of industry is so much neglected as operational definitions. — W. Edwards Deming

Without theory, there are no questions. — W. Edwards Deming

Management's job is to know which systems are stable and which are not. — W. Edwards Deming

The ultimate purpose of collecting the data is to provide a basis for action or a recommendation. — W. Edwards Deming

Uncontrolled variation is the enemy of quality. — W. Edwards Deming

Competent men in every position, if they are doing their best, know all that there is to know about their work except how to improve it. — W. Edwards Deming

A leader knows who is outside of the system and needs special help. — W. Edwards Deming

Thought Leadership
"The new economics for industry, government, education" Book by W. Edwards Deming
"In God we trust. All others must bring data."
William Edwards Deming,
Statistician, Professor and Author
#smitanairjain #leadership #womenintech #thoughtleaders #tedxspeaker #technology #tech #success #strategy #startuplife #startupbusiness #startup #mentor #leaders #itmanagement #itleaders #innovation #informationtechnology #influencers #Influencer #hightech #fintechinfluencer #fintech #entrepreneurship #entrepreneurs #economy #economics #development #businessintelligence #business — W. Edwards Deming

Scientific data are not taken for museum purposes; they are taken as a basis for doing something. If nothing is to be done with the data, then there is no use in collecting any. The ultimate purpose of taking data is to provide a basis for action or a recommendation for action. The step intermediate between the collection of data and the action is prediction. — W. Edwards Deming

The greatest losses are unknown and unknowable. — W. Edwards Deming

Change the rule and you will get a new number. — W. Edwards Deming

The legendary statistical consultant W. Edwards Deming, ... has called the system by which merit is appraised and rewarded 'the most powerful inhibitor to quality and productivity in the Western world' ... it is simply unfair to the extent that employees are held responsible for what are, in reality, systemic factors that are beyond their control. — Alfie Kohn

Learn the basics of analytics and people will love you. If you don't have time to learn, hire someone. — W. Edwards Deming

The process is not just the sum of its parts. — W. Edwards Deming

We cannot rely on mass inspection to improve quality, though there are times when 100 percent inspection is necessary. As Harold S. Dodge said many years ago, 'You cannot inspect quality into a product.' The quality is there or it isn't by the time it's inspected. — W. Edwards Deming

Meeting specifications is not enough. — W. Edwards Deming

A rule should suit the purpose. — W. Edwards Deming

Quality starts in the boardroom. — W. Edwards Deming

Quality is pride of workmanship. — W. Edwards Deming

W. Edwards Deming, the father of the quality movement, taught that any time the majority of the people behave a particular way the majority of the time, the people are not the problem. The problem is inherent in the system.2 As a leader, you own responsibility for the system. — Chris McChesney

A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system. A system must have an aim. Without the aim, there is no system. — W. Edwards Deming

All anyone asks for is a chance to work with pride. — W. Edwards Deming

Innovation comes from the producer - not from the customer. — W. Edwards Deming

The questions are more important than the answers. — W. Edwards Deming

Management is prediction. — W. Edwards Deming

The greatest waste ... is failure to use the abilities of people ... to learn about their frustrations and about the contributions that they are eager to make. — W. Edwards Deming

Anyone that enjoys his work is a pleasure to work with. — W. Edwards Deming

You do not install quality; you begin to work at it. — W. Edwards Deming

If someone can make a contribution to the company he feels important. — W. Edwards Deming

Choice of aim is clearly a matter of clarification of values, especially on the choice between possible options. — W. Edwards Deming

Mere allocation of huge sums of money for quality will not bring quality. — W. Edwards Deming

Improve quality, you automatically improve productivity. — W. Edwards Deming

People with targets and jobs dependent upon meeting them will probably meet the targets - even if they have to destroy the enterprise to do it. — W. Edwards Deming

Learning is not cumpulsory ... neither is survival. — W. Edwards Deming

Retroactive management emphasizes the bottom line. — W. Edwards Deming

In God we trust; all others must bring data. — W. Edwards Deming

Management does not know what a system is. — W. Edwards Deming

We are here to learn, to make a difference and to have fun. — W. Edwards Deming

We must satisfy our customers. — W. Edwards Deming

The job can't be finished only improved to please the customer. — W. Edwards Deming

It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and THEN do your best. - W. Edwards Deming — Joseph Grenny

From the vantage point of the brain, doing well in school and at work involves one and the same state, the brain's sweet spot for performance. The biology of anxiety casts us out of that zone for excellence. "Banish fear" was a slogan of the late quality-control guru W. Edwards Deming. He saw that fear froze a workplace: workers were reluctant to speak up, to share new ideas, or to coordinate well, let alone to improve the quality of their output. The same slogan applies to the classroom - fear frazzles the mind, disrupting learning. — Daniel Goleman

The average American worker has fifty interruptions a day, of which seventy percent have nothing to do with work. — W. Edwards Deming

He that would run his company on visible figures alone will in time have neither company nor figures. — W. Edwards Deming

The pay and privilege of the captains of industry are now so closely linked to the quarterly dividend that they may find it personally unrewarding to do what is right for the company. — W. Edwards Deming

Without data, you're just another person with an opinion. — W. Edwards Deming

It is not enough that top management commit themselves for life to quality and productivity. They must know what it is that they are committed to - that is, what they must do. These obligations cannot be delegated. Support is not enough; action is required. — W. Edwards Deming

Any manager can do well in an expanding market. — W. Edwards Deming

There is no economy in having one operation produce a part and another separate the good ones from the bad ones. — W. Edwards Deming

Management by results - like driving a car by looking in rear view mirror. — W. Edwards Deming

Don't expect smart people to listen to you without proof. — W. Edwards Deming

I predicted in 1950 that in five years, manufacturers the world over would be screaming for protection. It took only four years. — W. Edwards Deming

There is very little evidence that we give a hoot about profit. — W. Edwards Deming

The system that people work in and the interaction with people may account for 90 or 95 percent of performance. — W. Edwards Deming

Whenever there is fear, you will get wrong figures. — W. Edwards Deming

Managing by results only makes things worse. — W. Edwards Deming

It's not enough to do your best; you must know what to do & then do your best. — W. Edwards Deming

The only useful function of a statistician is to make predictions, and thus to provide a basis for action. — W. Edwards Deming

We are here to make another world. — W. Edwards Deming

No one knows the cost of a defective product - don't tell me you do. You know the cost of replacing it, but not the cost of a dissatisfied customer. — W. Edwards Deming

What should be the aim of management? What is their job? Quality is the responsibility of the top people. Its origin is in the boardroom. They are the ones who decide. — W. Edwards Deming

People are entitled to joy in work. — W. Edwards Deming