W. Edwards Deming Quotes - Page 4

Nobody should try to use data unless he has collected data.

You can not hear what you do not understand.

It does not happen all at once. There is no instant pudding.

Judging people does not help them.

The source of innovation is freedom. All we have - new knowledge, invention - comes from freedom. Discoveries and new knowledge come from freedom. When somebody is responsible only to himself, [has] only himself to satisfy, then you'll have invention, new thought, now product, new design, new ideas.

What makes a scientist great is the care that he takes in telling you what is wrong with his results, so that you will not misuse them.

The main difference between service and manufacturing is the service department doesn't know that they have a product.

The questions are more important than the answers.

A manager of people needs to understand that all people are different. This is not ranking people. He needs to understand that the performance of anyone is governed largely by the system that he works in, the responsibility of management.

You cannot inspect quality into the product; it is already there.

You can not achieve an aim unless you have a method.

A leader's job is to help his people.

Knowledge is theory. We should be thankful if action of management is based on theory. Knowledge has temporal spread. Information is not knowledge. The world is drowning in information but is slow in acquisition of knowledge. There is no substitute for knowledge.

Quality is made in the board room. A worker can deliver lower quality, but she cannot deliver quality better than the system allow.

Learning is not compulsory; it's voluntary... But to survive, we must learn.

People are entitled to joy in work.

We are here to make another world.

Scrap doesn't come for free, we pay someone to make it.

Sub-optimization is when everyone is for himself. Optimization is when everyone is working to help the company.

The transformation will come from leadership.

You do not find knowledge in a dictionary, only information.

You do not install quality; you begin to work at it.

Managing by results only makes things worse.

Anyone that enjoys his work is a pleasure to work with.

It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth