Deming’s 14 Points on Quality Management is a set of management practices that aims to increase productivity and enhance quality and should be part of your business strategy.
Deming’s philosophy is principled on Total Quality Management (TQM) thinking and it has received systematic attention within the business world since its correct application can yield many benefits to the organization, including higher quality, increased productivity and decreased expenses.
Here are the 14 points that need to be followed according to Dr. W. Edwards Deming:
1. Create constancy of purpose towards improvement, with the aim of becoming better and more competitive. Long-term plans for quality are vital.
2. Adopt the new philosophy. Create a quality vision, embrace it, and take on leadership.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Embrace the concept of quality from start to finish. Implement statistical control methods to monitor your processes and quality – do not solely depend on inspections.
4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Use a single supplier for any one item and invest in a long-term relationship that is principled on loyalty and trust. View your suppliers as your partners to minimize total cost.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system and processes, to improve quality and productivity. Use the Plan-Do-Check-Act framework, intensify training, and implement the Kaizen philosophy to reduce waist, improve productivity, and decrease costs.
6. Use training on the job to build shared knowledge and foster a culture for teamwork.
7. Emphasize leadership. Supervisor should assist the workforce and the processes to work better and more efficiently. View each individual as separate and help him to reach his full potential through participative management and transformational leadership.
8. Reduce fear to give the best chance to everyone to perform at their maximum potential. People should not be reluctant to express their concerns and ideas.
9. Break down barriers between departments. People from various departments must come together and work as a team. By having a shared direction, culture, and mission you can achieve enhanced collaboration and better results.
10. Eliminate slogans that are unclear asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Slogans that are not easily understandable only create confusion and adversarial relationships. Instead, emphasize on effective leadership.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.. Do not just rely on numerical targets. Assess and evaluate the whole process; from start to finish. Further, make sure to provide enough support and resources to keep the quality at high levels.
12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate
the annual rating or merit system. It is important that you treat everyone equally, and that you don’t make your workforce compete against each other for monetary rewards.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement. Prioritize continuous learning by building upon the current skills of your workforce and by encouraging people to learn new skills.
14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody’s job.