In God we trust; all others must bring data. W. Edwards Deming BI Commons | A Business Intelligenc...

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InGodwetrust;allothersmustbringdata.W. EdwardsDeming
I came across that Deming quote in a book Im currently reading, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning. I had never really heard of Deming, but he is certainly an interesting character, and several of his ideas about systems and management are easily applicable to Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing projects. For instance, his 14 Points for Management, from Out of the Crisis: 1. 2. 3. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and Institute training on the job. become competitive and stay in business, and to provide jobs. to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change. basis by building quality into the product in the first place. 4. 5. 6. 7.

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Move towards a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust. productivity, and thus constantly decrease cost. Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets

to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers. 8. 9. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production

must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service. 10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.

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In God we trust; all others must bring data. W. Edwards Deming BI Commons | A Business Intelligenc... Page 2 of 3

11.

a.) Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership. b.) Eliminate

management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute workmanship. 12. a.) Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality. b.) Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective. 13. 14. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement. Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is

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Check out his lengthy Wikipedia entry for more on his concepts and philosophies. W. Edwards Deming

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009, 9:30 pm and is filed under Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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#1 by John Hunter - July 25th, 2009 at 16:45

I have posted some of my thoughts on Demings management ideas online, for those that want to learn more about his philosophy.

http://blog.axc.net/?p=795

6/2/2011

In God we trust; all others must bring data. W. Edwards Deming BI Commons | A Business Intelligenc... Page 3 of 3

#2 by Mike S - July 26th, 2009 at 14:35

Thanks, John. The rest of your site is also intriguing - I will be checking it out.

#3 by tim higgins - February 24th, 2011 at 19:23

Deming in The New Economics offers a theory of a system of profound knowledge and states (SoPK) that the 14 points follow naturally from application of SoPK to the task of transforming the prevailing style of mangement. There is scant evidence the quote in god we trust . . . . is Demings and much evidence in his writings that he would not suscribe to it. Heres one bit of evidence from p 35 of The New Economics The magnitudes of the most important losses from action or inaction by management are unknown and unknowable (Lloyd S. Nelson; see Out of the Crisis, p. 20). We must nevertheless learn how to manage these losses. We MUST manage without data. We must use theory. p 63 A simple example is training. The only immediate evidence is its cost, expense. The effect of training will not be realized for months or even years in the future. Moreover, the effect can not be measured. Then why does a company spend money for training? Because the management believe that there will in the future be benefits that far outweigh the cost. In other words, the management are guided by theory, not by figures. They are wise.

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