QUALITY SERVICE

MANAGEMENT
in
TOURISM AND
HOSPITALITY
INDUSTRY
JEREMAY DARADAR BSHM 1-A
 DISCUSSION PAPER: DR. WILLIAM
EDWARD DEMING, THE MAN WHO
HELPED SHAPE THE WORLD

William Edwards Deming (1900-1993) is widely acknowledged as

the leading management thinker in the field of quality. He derived

the first philosophy and method that allowed individuals and

organizations to plan and continually improve themselves, their

relationships, processes, products and services. His philosophy is

one of cooperation and continual improvement; it avoids blame

and redefines mistakes as opportunities for improvement.

Naturally enough, no one as universally acclaimed as Deming

will escape without criticism. Some have criticized his approach

as being good for improvement, but uninspiring for creativity and

innovation. Others say his approach is not effective for

generating new products or penetrating new markets.

In 1950, Japanese businessmen turned to an obscure American

from Wyoming to help them rebuild an economy shattered in World

War II. That industrial expert, W. Edwards Deming, taught Japan’s

manufacturers how to produce top quality products economically.

The Japanese used that knowledge to turn the global economy on

its head and beat U.S. industry at its own game. Companies such

as Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. adopted Deming’s concepts

and became world-class producers in their fields, helping Japan

become one of the planet’s dominant economic powers. Japan’s

rise was the start of a regional metamorphosis. Asia eventually

became a manufacturing giant. Although American companies

could have learned from Deming, most ignored him for decades

even as Asian competitors gobbled away at Americans’ customer

base and profits.

Deming's work and writing constitute not so much a technique,

as a philosophy of management, Total Quality Management, that

focuses on quality and continuous improvement but which has had

- justifiably - a much wider influence. Here we will consider

Deming's interest in variation and his approach to systematic

problem solving which led on to his development of the 14 points

which have gained widespread recognition and which are central

to the quality movement and his philosophy of transformational

management. Deming was preoccupied with why things do not

behave as predicted. All systems (be they the equipment, the

process or the people) have variation, but he argued that it is

essential for managers to be able to distinguish between special

and common causes of variation. He developed a theory of

variation - that special causes of variation are usually easily

attributable to quickly recognizable factors such as changes of

procedure, change of shift or operator etc. but that common

causes will remain when special causes have been eliminated

(normally due to design, process or system).

 Over the years, a few American companies requested Deming’s

assistance. Ford Motor Co., hemorrhaging money in the 1980s, was

among the first to hire Deming to reshape its manufacturing

operations. One result of that collaboration was Ford’s

revolutionary Ford Taurus, which became one of the best-selling

cars of all time. Other U.S. firms that turned to Deming for help

included Xerox Corp., Procter & Gamble Co., AT&T Inc., and The

New York Times. Deming was 93 when he died in 1993 at his

longtime Washington, D.C., home where he both lived and worked.

He worked until his death: His last seminar for executives was

held in Los Angeles just ten days before he died. To the end, he

was an unlikely revolutionary who lived what he taught. For

instance, he wrote the dates on eggs in his refrigerator to ensure

that the oldest were consumed first and none would spoil. But his

business methods worked, and by the time he died, the industrial

expert from rural Wyoming had gained converts all over the world,

even in the once-resistant United States.

Resources: Deming, W. Edwards. “Those Lean Years at Wyoming

U.” First published by the University of Wyoming, 1965; website for

W. Edwards Deming Institute. Accessed June 9, 2011 at

http://deming.org/index.cfm?content=63Deming, W. Edwards.

Excerpts from Deming’s writing. Website for W. Edwards Deming

Institute. Accessed June 9, 2011 at http://deming.org/index.cfm?

content=66

Website: https://deming.org/

https://www.bl.uk/people/w-edwards-deming