Quality pioneer pessimistic about future of West’s industry

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 27

Quality pioneer pessimistic about future of West’s industry

By

NEILL BIRSS

An American expert praised by the Japanese as one of the sources of their industrial development is pessimistic about Western management and industry. Dr W. Edwards Deming, perhaps the greatest figure in the evolution of quality control, arrived in New Zealand yesterday.

He told a news conference in Auckland that the experience of Japan, with no resources but people and good management, showed that no country needed to be poor. But he questioned whether the West would get good management. If it did it would have to be created, Dr Deming, now 83, said. He will lead a four-day seminar at the SheratonAuckland Hotel next week. The course is fully booked, at prices which range up to $9OO for a single registration. Twenty-seven Canterbury firms will be represented.

He will also give an address in the Christchurch Town Hall this Thursday. Tickets, $lO each, are available at the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce office.

Dr Deming, originally a statistician, became a theorist on the broader issues of quality control, and in 1950 was invited to Japan by the Society of Engineers and Scientists, to give his ideas to top management. They were widely adopted, and have since been developed

by the Japanese in new techniques such as quality circles, now being adopted in the West He has since been honoured by the Japanese Emperor with an award.

The visit to New Zealand, inflated by two lecturers at the University of Otago, has been underwritten by Fisher and Paykel, Ltd, but the financial success of the project is already assured. In Auckland yesterday morning after a sleepless night aboard an airliner from the United States, Dr Deming spoke with all the fervour of a religious proselytiser. There was not one thing to stop any other nation adopting the quality control techniques which had been so successful for Japanese industry, Dr Deming said. Asked by a reporter if cultural attitudes were not a factor in the case of Japanese industry, he said: “Attitude, hell. People in our country never had a chance, or maybe two out of a hundred did.”

He used words of an American humorist, Josh Billings, to give his views of Western management: “They know so much that isn’t so.”

Western firms had not “held the market,” and workers were going out on the street. “People are a commodity in the Western world,” he said, “If you don’t need them, you put them out.”

Dr Deming’s recipe for industrial success is: im-

prove quality; through this reduce cost; then reduce price; capture market; hold jobs; create more jobs. He emphasises that the quality he advocates is not of the “gold plating” kind, but rather of improved processes and products and services more useful to those who consume them. A film shown at the news conference illustrated his methods. It showed the implementation of his philosophy in recent years at the Pontiac division of General Motors. Dr Deming has been a consultant for this implementation. Ideas from the factory floor, teaching of rudimentary analytical and decisionmaking skills to workers, much-increased inter-de-partment communications, total commitment of top management, and close

working with suppliers were some of the factors. Dr Deming encapsulates the theory in 14 obligations that he says top management must accept: • “Create constancy, of purpose towards improvement of product and services.” • Adopt the new philosophy that we no longer need live with commonly accepted delays, mistakes, defective materials and workmanship.” • “Cease dependence on mass inspection.” ® “Stop awarding business solely on the basis of lowest bid.” ® “Constantly look for problems in the system.” ® “Institute modern methods of training on the job.” ® “Institute modern methods of supervision.” ® “Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the commpany.” ® “Break down barriers between departments.” ® “Eliminate numerical goals, posters, slogans that do not demonstrate ways of achieving improvement.” ® “Eliminate piece-work and standards of work measurement based on numerical quotas.” ® “Remove barriers to pride of workmanship.” • “Institute a vigorous programme of education and retraining.” ® “Create a top management structure to continually pursue these points.” Dr Deming was critical of what he sees as Western

management’s over-reliance on numerical analysis. Western management had no idea of its problems because it worked in figures, he said. “Accountants don’t have figures for losses because workers do not take pride in their work ... no wonder we’re in trouble.” He criticised management systems such as Management by Objectives, piece-work, and incentives plans. Of Management by Objectives he said, “You may not have it (in New Zealand). If not, don’t pick up the infection.” Too often goals were set in number rather than quality, and number rather than total cost (after taking into account the costs of poor quality). Wealth was being created “on paper,” he said, rather than real wealth being created. He described real wealth as that from enlarging the economic pie; paper wealth was “shuffling of assets, acquisition and selling off, creative accounting” which meant getting a bigger share of the pie at someone-else’s expense. Very much a man who believes in job satisfaction for workers, Dr Deming proved less than an industrial democrat at his press conference, savaging a number of reporters who asked questions, and then largely ignoring all the questions. Perhaps it was merely the lack of sleep on the

grand old management theorist.

At any rate, he is still an entertaining evangeliser for the cause of managemenet reform, and if in the same form in Christchurch tomorrow will be well worth a $lO ticket. At the very least, it will be a chance to see and hear one of the fathers of quality control — a man whose name will crop up in management and engineering textbooks for many more decades.