Demmings 14 rules

Demming was regarded by many as the best teacher they ever had apparently.  He helped Japaneses companies develop philosophies about continuous management.  I got this from a site here.

It is very applicable to teaching in all but one or two places.

The 14 Points 

1. Create a constant purpose toward improvement.
   • Plan for quality in the long term.
   • Resist reacting with short-term solutions.
   • Don't just do the same things better – find better things to do.
   • Predict and prepare for future challenges, and always have the goal of getting better.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
   • Embrace quality throughout the organization.
   • Put your customers' needs first, rather than react to competitive pressure – and design products and services to meet those needs.
   • Be prepared for a major change in the way business is done. It's about leading, not simply managing.
   • Create your quality vision, and implement it.
3. Stop depending on inspections.
   • Inspections are costly and unreliable – and they don't improve quality, they merely find a lack of quality.
   • Build quality into the process from start to finish.
   • Don't just find what you did wrong – eliminate the "wrongs" altogether.
   • Use statistical control methods – not physical inspections alone – to prove that the process is working.
4. Use a single supplier for any one item.
   • Quality relies on consistency – the less variation you have in the input, the less variation you'll have in the output.
   • Look at suppliers as your partners in quality. Encourage them to spend time improving their own quality – they shouldn't compete for your business based on price alone.
   • Analyze the total cost to you, not just the initial cost of the product.
   • Use quality statistics to ensure that suppliers meet your quality standards.
5. Improve constantly and forever.
   • Continuously improve your systems and processes. Deming promoted thePlan-Do-Check-Act   approach to process analysis and improvement.
   • Emphasize training and education so everyone can do their jobs better.
   • Use kaizen   as a model to reduce waste and to improve productivity, effectiveness, and safety.
6. Use training on the job.
   • Train for consistency to help reduce variation.
   • Build a foundation of common knowledge.
   • Allow workers to understand their roles in the "big picture."
   • Encourage staff to learn from one another, and provide a culture and environment for effective teamwork.
7. Implement leadership.
   • Expect your supervisors and managers to understand their workers and the processes they use.
   • Don't simply supervise – provide support and resources so that each staff member can do his or her best. Be a coach instead of a policeman.
   • Figure out what each person actually needs to do his or her best.
   • Emphasize the importance of participative management and transformational leadership.
   • Find ways to reach full potential, and don't just focus on meeting targets and quotas.
8. Eliminate fear.
   • Allow people to perform at their best by ensuring that they're not afraid to express ideas or concerns.
   • Let everyone know that the goal is to achieve high quality by doing more things right – and that you're not interested in blaming people when mistakes happen.
   • Make workers feel valued, and encourage them to look for better ways to do things.
   • Ensure that your leaders are approachable and that they work with teams to act in the company's best interests.
   • Use open and honest communication to remove fear from the organization.
9. Break down barriers between departments.
   • Build the "internal customer" concept – recognize that each department or function serves other departments that use their output.
   • Build a shared vision.
   • Use cross-functional teamwork to build understanding and reduce adversarial relationships.
   • Focus on collaboration and consensus instead of compromise.
10. Get rid of unclear slogans.
    • Let people know exactly what you want – don't make them guess."Excellence in service" is short and memorable, but what does it mean?How is it achieved? The message is clearer in a slogan like "You can do better if you try."
    • Don't let words and nice-sounding phrases replace effective leadership.Outline your expectations, and then praise people face-to-face for doing good work.
11. Eliminate management by objectives.
    • Look at how the process is carried out, not just numerical targets. Deming said that production targets encourage high output and low quality.
    • Provide support and resources so that production levels and quality are high and achievable.
    • Measure the process rather than the people behind the process.