W. Edwards Deming Quotes

Learning is not compulsory; it's voluntary... But to survive, we must learn.

People work in the system. Management creates the system

You can not achieve an aim unless you have a method.

Whenever there is fear, you will get wrong figures.

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

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!

If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyone that enjoys his work is a pleasure to work with.

Does experience help? NO! Not if we are doing the wrong things.

You have to manage a system. The system doesn't manage itself.

No one can measure the loss of business that may arise from a defective item that goes out to a customer.

There is no substitute for knowledge.

Innovation comes from people who take joy in their work.

The most basic problem is that performance appraisals often don't accurately assess performance.

A man who knows not his limitations is of no use to anyone.

For Quality: Stamp out fires, automate, computerize, M.B.O., install merit pay, rank people, best efforts, zero defects. WRONG!!!! Missing ingredient: profound knowledge.

There is no economy in having one operation produce a part and another separate the good ones from the bad ones.

People need to know what their jobs are.

We have to bring back the individual. Management has smothered the individual.

You do not install quality; you begin to work at it.

We should be guided by theory, not by numbers.

The only useful function of a statistician is to make predictions, and thus to provide a basis for action.

A committee appointed by the President of a company will report what the President wishes to hear. Would they dare report otherwise?.

Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.

Now, we learn that a system must have an aim. Without an aim, there is no system.

Management of outcomes may not be any more than a skill. It does not require knowledge.

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

A goal without a method is nonsense.

You should not ask questions without knowledge.

Judging people does not help them.

Any manager can do well in an expanding market.

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

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

You can not plan to make a discovery. You do not plan innovation.

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.

It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth

Information is not knowledge. Let's not confuse the two.

Does the customer invent new product or service? The customer generates nothing. No customer asked for electric lights. There was gas and gas mantles, which gave good light.

A leader knows who is outside of the system and needs special help.

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

Shrink, shrink variation, to reduce the loss.

People need to know how their job contributes.

Mere allocation of huge sums of money for quality will not bring quality.

We must understand variation.