W. Edwards Deming Quotes - Page 6

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

We should be guided by theory, not by numbers.

If someone can make a contribution to the company he feels important.

Plants don't close from poor workmanship, but from poor management.

3% of the problems have figures, 97% of the problems do not.

It is important that an aim never be defined in terms of activity or methods. It must always relate directly to how life is better for everyone. . . . The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgment.

All anyone asks for is a chance to work with pride.

Confusing common causes with special causes will only make things worse.

You can only elevate individual performance by elevating that of the entire system.

I think that people here expect miracles. American management thinks that they can just copy from Japan - but they don't know what to copy!

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

To successfully respond to the myriad of changes that shake the world, transformation into a new style of management is required. The route to take is what I call profound knowledge, knowledge for leadership of transformation.

Competition should not be for a share of the market-but to expand the market.

Experience by itself teaches nothing... Without theory, experience has no meaning. Without theory, one has no questions to ask. Hence, without theory, there is no learning.

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

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

There is no substitute for knowledge.

The emphasis should be on why we do a job.

A system must be managed. It will not manage itself.

It would be a mistake to export western management to a friendly country.

People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-esteem, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy in learning.

The aim of education should be to preserve and nurture the yearning for learning that a child is born with.

The greatest losses are unknown and unknowable.

Profit in business comes from repeat customers

People learn in different ways: reading, listening, pictures, watching.