Demming’s Fourteen Points

Demming's Fourteen Points

Demming’s formulation of his Fourteen Points is seen by many as the management equivalent of the “10 Commandments”. Like many quality driven approaches, the fourteen points take a holistic view of an organization, how it works, and its relationships with its stakeholders.

Point 1: Create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service, wth the aim to become competitive, to stay in business and to provide jobs.

Constancy revolves around the customer. Success depends on how well a company evalutes its processes, products and markets in order to understand future requirements. This requires a commitment to invest and adapt to to changes in the market place.

Point 2: Adapt new philophies. Management must awake to new challenges, learn their reponsiblities and take on leadership for change.

Quality means giving the customer what they expect. Business cannot afford mistakes. Mistakes of any type are costly, and reliable products reduce costs.

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Point 3: Cease reliance on mass inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for mass inspection by building quality into the product in the first place.

Dependency on inspection at key points in a process to ensure quality is too late, expensive and ineffective. Companies are paying workers to make mistakes and then correct them.

Point 4: End the business of awarding business on the basis of price tags. Instead, minmize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, based on a relationship of long term loyalty and trust.

Price means nothing without a measure of the quality being delivered. When thinking about quality, the idea of buyng from the lowest bidder gets abandoned.

Point 5: Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service to improve quality and productivity, then thus constatnly decreasing costs.

The concept of quality should be built in at the design stage of the product. Each product should be viewed as “one of a kind” and there is only

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one chance of success.

Point 6: Institute training on the job.

Too often workers learn their skill from other workers who do not have adaquate training. It is useful to train as many workers as possible to detract from costly mistakes.

Point 7: Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines to do a better job.

Managers should be trainers, not policemen. Since management plays a key role in quality, reviews should include discussion on problems and potential solutions.

Point 8: Drive out fear so that eveyone may work effectively for the good of the oragnization.

Management through fear is destructive. It impedes production and interferes with quality work. People cannot perform at their best unless they are secure and are not afraid to express their opinions.

Point 9: Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design and production must work as a team to foresee problems of

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production