A Collection of Quotes from W. Edwards Deming

Over 100 Quotes from an engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant, W. Edwards Deming

1. A Collection of Quotes
from
W. Edwards Deming
Reference: The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog

2. William Edwards Deming was an American
engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and
management consultant. Wikipedia

Born: October 14, 1900, Sioux City, IA
Died: December 20, 1993, Washington, D.C.

Awards: National Medal of Technology and
Innovation, Shewhart Medal, Wilks Memorial Award

Education: Yale University, University of Wyoming,
University of Colorado Boulder
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Reference: Wikipedia

3. “The main difference
between service and
manufacturing is the
service department
doesn’t know that they
have a product.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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4. “Without data you’re
just another person with
an opinion.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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5. “People need to know
what their jobs are.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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6. “People are entitled to
joy in work.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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7. “People care more for
themselves when they
contribute to the
system.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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8. “People learn in
different ways: reading,
listening, pictures,
watching.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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9. “People need to know how
their job contributes.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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10. “Plants don’t close from
poor workmanship, but
from poor management.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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11. “Quality starts in the
boardroom..”
– W. Edwards Deming
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12. “The customer invents
nothing. New products
and new services come
from the producer.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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13. “Rational behavior requires
theory. Reactive behavior
requires only reflex action.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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14. “Sub-optimization is
when everyone is for
himself. Optimization is
when everyone is
working to help the
company.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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15. “Retroactive management
emphasizes the bottom
line.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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16. “Shrink, shrink
variation, to reduce the
loss.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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17. “There is no knowledge
without theory.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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18. “Stamping out fires is a lot
of fun, but it is only
putting things back the
way they were.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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19. “The aim should be to
work on the method of
management.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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20. “The emphasis should be
on why we do a job.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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21. “The transformation will
come from leadership.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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22. “The problem is that
most courses teach
what is wrong.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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23. “The process is not just
the sum of its parts.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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24. “The individual has been
crushed by our style of
management today.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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25. “People are entitled to joy
in work.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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26. “Nobody should try to use
data unless he has
collected data.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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27. “Monetary rewards are
not a substitute for
intrinsic motivation.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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28. “Meeting specifications is
not enough.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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29. “Managing by results only
makes things worse.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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30. “Managing by results is
like looking in the rear-
view mirror.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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31. “Management’s job is to
optimize the whole
system.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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32. “Management’s job is to
know which systems are
stable and which are not.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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33. “Management’s job is to
improve the system.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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34. “Management of
outcomes may not be any
more than a skill. It does
not require knowledge.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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35. “Management by results
is confusing special
causes with common
causes.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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36. “3% of the problems have
figures, 97% of the
problems do not.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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37. “A rational prediction has
an explanation based on
theory.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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38. “A rule should suit the
purpose.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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39. “All anyone asks for is a
chance to work with
pride.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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40. “All anyone asks for is a
chance to work with
pride.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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41. “Any manager can do well
in an expanding market.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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42. “Any two people have
different ideas of what is
important.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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43. “Best efforts will not
substitute for
knowledge.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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44. “Change the rule and you
will get a new number.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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45. “Competition should not
be for a share of the
market–but to expand
the market.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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46. “Confusing common
causes with special
causes will only make
things worse.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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47. “Divide responsibility and
nobody is responsible.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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48. “Does experience help?
No! Not if we are doing
the wrong things.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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49. “Forces of Destruction:
grades in school, merit
system, incentive pay,
business plans, quotas.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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50. “Everyone is a customer
for somebody, or a
supplier to somebody.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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51. “A goal without a method
is nonsense.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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52. “For Quality: Stamp out fires,
automate, computerize,
M.B.O., install merit pay, rank
people, best efforts, zero
defects. Wrong!!!! Missing
ingredient: profound
knowledge.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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53. “I am not reporting things
about people. I am
reporting things about
practices.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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54. “If someone can make a
contribution to the
company he feels
important.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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55. “If you destroy the people
of a company, you do not
have much left.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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56. “If you do not know how
to ask the right question,
you discover nothing.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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57. “Improve quality, you
automatically improve
productivity.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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58. “Information is not
knowledge. Let’s not
confuse the two.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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59. “Innovation comes from
people who take joy in
their work.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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60. “Innovation comes from
the producer–not from
the customer.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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61. “It does not happen all at
once. There is no instant
pudding.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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62. “It is a mistake to assume
that if everybody does his
job, it will be all right. The
whole system may be in
trouble.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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63. “It only takes a little
innovation.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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64. “It’s management’s job to
know.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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65. “Knowledge is the key.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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66. “Lack of knowledge…that
is the problem.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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67. “Judging people does not
help them.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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68. “A leader knows who is
outside of the system and
needs special help.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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69. “A leader must have
knowledge. A leader must
be able to teach.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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70. “A leader’s job is to help
his people.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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71. “Let us ask our suppliers
to come and help us to
solve our problems.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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72. “Manage the cause, not
the result.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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73. “There is very little
evidence that we give a
hoot about profit.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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74. “There must be
consistency in direction.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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75. “Understanding variation
is the key to success in
quality and business.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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76. “We are being ruined by
the best efforts of people
who are doing the
wrong thing.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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77. “We are here for an
education.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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78. “We are here to learn, to
make a difference and to
have fun.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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79. “We have to bring back the
individual. Management has
smothered the individual.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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80. “We know what we told
him, but we don’t know
what he heard.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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81. “We must satisfy our
customers.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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82. “We must understand
variation.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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83. “We should be guided by
theory, not by numbers.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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84. “We should work on our
process, not the outcome
of our processes.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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85. “We want best efforts
guided by theory.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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86. “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.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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87. “When a system is stable,
telling the worker about
mistakes is only
tampering.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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88. “When a worker has
reached a stable state,
further training will not
help him.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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89. “A manager of people
knows that in this stable
state it is distracting to
tell the worker about a
mistake.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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90. “When people try to do
what they can not do,
they wish to give up.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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91. “When we cooperate,
everybody wins.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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92. “Whenever there is fear,
you will get wrong
figures.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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93. “Without questions, there
is no learning.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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94. “Without theory there is
nothing to modify or
learn.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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95. “Without theory we can
only copy.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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96. “You can not achieve an
aim unless you have a
method.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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97. “You can not hear what
you do not understand.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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98. “You can not plan to make
a discovery. You do not
plan innovation.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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99. “You can see from a flow
diagram who depends on
you and whom you can
depend on. You can now
take joy in your work.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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100. “You do not find
knowledge in a dictionary,
only information.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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101. “You do not install
knowledge.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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102. “You do not install quality;
you begin to work at it.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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103. “You must have a supplier
relationship of constant
improvement.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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104. “You should not ask
questions without
knowledge.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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105. “Zero defects is a super
highway going down the
tube.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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106. “Cease dependence on
mass inspection to
achieve quality. Improve
the process and build
quality into the product
in the first place.”
– W. Edwards Deming
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107. "One need not be eminent in any
part of profound knowledge in order
to understand it and to apply it. The
various segments of the system of
profound knowledge cannot be
separated. They interact with each
other. For example knowledge about
psychology is incomplete without
knowledge of variation."
- W. Edwards Deming
Deming’s System
of Profound
Knowledge
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108. W. Edwards Deming’s Five Diseases of Management

1.Lack of constancy of purpose
•No Planning for future with respect to quality and productivity
•Lack of long term definition and goals for quality and productivity
2.Emphasis on short-term profits
•Worship of quarterly dividend
•Sacrificing long term growth of company
3.Evaluation by performance, merit rating,
or annual review of performance
•Arbitrary and unjust system
•Demoralizing employees
4.Mobility of management
•No roots in the company
•No knowledge of the company
•No understanding of its problems
5.Running a company on visible figures only
•No use of figures that are unknown or
unknowable
•Encouraged by business school.
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