I was interested to read an article in the latest edition of The Economist about W.Edwards Deming (1900-1993). Deming, who was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, second class, the highest Japanese award ever given to foreigners, for his efforts in helping improve product quality in Japanese companies, is once quoted as saying: “If I had to reduce my message for management to a few words, I’d say it all had to do with reducing variation.”
Management, Deming argued, is responsible for 85% of variation. Reduce the variation, increase the quality; this was the foundation of his advice.
