Dr. W. Edwards Deming: Father of the quality evolution
Dr. W Edwards Deming, born 14 October 1900 was an American engineer, statistician, author, lecturer, and consultant. He has made many academic contributions to the quality movement including his philosophical methods and his theory of profound knowledge has assisted in the development of Total Quality Management (TQM). The 1950s was the era that was considered the origin of TQM but interest in this management practice peaked in the early 1990s. Deming, being profoundly known for his consultations, lectures, and knowledge on matters of quality management grew to become the leading management thinker in the field of quality.
The idea of ‘quality’ is perceiving value in something, implying excellence but in the opinion of Ferreira and Groenwald (2016),” quality can furthermore be viewed as performance to standards, meeting the needs of customers or satisfying customers”. Managing quality or quality control to ensure consumer satisfaction is known as TQM although Erasmus, Strydom, and Rudansky-Kloppers (2018) state that TQM means that ‘quality’ is everyone’s responsibility in the organization which is inclined with Deming’s theories while Deming also implies that it all starts with “top management”.(bright hub. com, n. d)
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The TQM approach places “strong emphasis on improvements made to products and services by management, resulting in delivering quality desired by customers.” (Erasmus, Strydom, and Rudansky-Kloppers 2018). In the United States government and military, the philosophy and methods of Dr. Deming were often used to support and aid TQM programs (Clark, 2015). Deming’s biggest contribution to the evolution of quality was identified through his teachings. “He taught Japanese executives and engineers his methods for statistical analysis and the control of quality.” (asq.org, n. d) His methods helped Japan rebuild its economy after World War II and beyond within an achieved timeframe.
Deming’s contributions influenced the development of programs that promote quality in nations and organizations including the Deming Prize in Japan and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) in the United States, now being used by 100 worldwide programs (Clark, 2015). The Deming Institute showcases a number of his books based on his 14 points of quality management which he is well known for, such as his statistical knowledge, and theories illustrating business processes through his detailed experiments.
Deming’s famous ‘Red Bead’ experiment, according to Erasmus, Strydom, and Rudansky-Kloppers(2018) illustrates Deming’s approach to the implementation of quality control systems in which Deming (1993) statistically implies that “it is up to management to improve the system”. Dyck and Neubert (2009) provide us with an example of the Ford Motor Company manufacturing transmissions using Deming’s principles, resulting in customer reports dropping by 50% over 5 years and a decrease in warranty repairs tenfold.
Deming’s theory of variation, which states that “every person, place or thing is unique, one of a kind and no two things are exactly alike”(Deming,1993) is an example of how quality can make or break a business. Fenty Beauty by Rihanna saw its first launch receive millions of positive views and sales due to her thought and consideration of the quality of her products. Fenty Beauty’s foundation line has a color made for each and every skin tone – all completely different to compliment every shade and skin tone of women worldwide accommodating every person regardless of their tone or skin color and this makes customers feel included, whereas Kylie Cosmetics by Kylie Jenner had some bad reports about many products having defects and it not being worth its price. Kylie shows no personal interest in the quality dynamics of her products and faced exceedingly disappointed customers, a lack of sales, and her target markets' confidence in her products altogether against Fenty Beauty’s make-up line.
Deming’s emphasis on reducing variation to minimize mistakes can also be seen through Rihanna’s (CEO) “complete control over everything that Fenty Beauty releases” as she explains in an interview with British Vogues’ editor on the basis of her new skincare line. Rihanna’s time and effort put into the quality of her product along with her small team of experts do not allow room for errors as she claims “I’d feel like a fraud selling something I can’t stand by” (Rosenstein, 2020).
From this, we can see that Deming’s contribution to quality evolution can be identified in any type of organization and his theories and philosophy methods of quality improvement were recognized globally and are still relevant in providing a better way of leading and managing organizations.
Reference list
- Ask. org-resources. (n. d) Retrieved from https://www.asq.org/quality-resources [03 April 2020]
- Brighthub.com (n. d) “Deming’s theory of variation” Retrieved from https://www.brighthub.com [04 April 2020]
- Clark, T.J. 03 March 2015 The Deming paradigm for reducing variation: Unknown by Most, Misunderstood by Many, Relevant to All. Retrieved from https://www.successthroughquality.com [04 April 2020]
- Deming, W. E. 1993 The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Advanced Engineering Study. p. 101
- Erasmus, B. Strydom, J.W and Rudansky-Kloppers, S. 2018 Introduction to Business Management 10th edition. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa. p.271,272.
- Ferreira, E.J and Groenewald, D. 2016 Administrative Management 4th Edition. Cape Town: Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd. p. 268
- Jenna Rosenstein 31 March 2020 Rihanna Fenty Skincare. Retrieved from https://www.harpersbazaar.com [02 April 2020]
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