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Dr. W. Edwards Deming
Dr. W. Edwards Deming is the American statistician best known for starting the Japanese revolution in quality excellence. He has been called the "founder of the third wave of the Industrial Revolution."
In the 1950's, he went to Japan at the invitation of the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers to lecture top business leaders on concepts of statistical quality control. Deming told the audience that they could dominate the world for quality and customer satisfaction if they would adapt a statistically-based, customer-driven approach to doing business.
Deming's basic philosophy is that quality and productivity improve as variation decreases. Since all things vary, the statistical method of quality control is the perfect approach. There are two types of variation: variation due to chance, and variation due to a specific cause. He advocates the use of statistics to measure performance in all areas, not just conformance to specifications. Furthermore, he says it is not enough to meet specifications. The organization must keep working to reduce "variation." Deming is noted for his concept of continuous improvement through the progressive elimination of both internal and external causes of variation. Deming's theory on quality is summarized in his "14 Points", as illustrated in the box shown on the next page.
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