Red Beads

Dr.
Demings Red Bead

Experiment
Steven S Prevette
Fluor Government Group ESH&Q

ELR Consulting
ASQ Certified Quality Engineer
509-373-9371
Steven_s_prevette@rl.gov
ELR Consulting, Inc.

Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business
Lessons from the Red Beads
You now have a common experience with
thousands of individuals
Did you have an Aha moment?
Lessons from the Beads
What can I do?

Aha! Moments
ELR Consulting, Inc. 3

Lessons
1) It's the system, not the workers. Dr. Deming stated
94% of the outcomes of any organization is a result of
the systems used, not the people.
2) Quality is made at the top. Quality is an outcome of
the system. Top management owns the system.
3) Numerical goals and production standards can be
meaningless. The number of red beads produced is
determined by the process, not by the standard.
4) Rewarding or punishing the Willing Workers had no
effect on the outcome. Extrinsic motivation is not
effective.

Lessons
5) We can use statistics to create a visual representation
of the data and look for problem areas and predict
future performance.
6) A faulty item is not a signal of "special" causes. A
process can be stable, in-control and be producing 100
percent defective items. "Defects" are defined by
specification, not by process.
7) Rigid and precise procedures are not sufficient to
produce the desired quality.

Lessons
8) Keeping the place open with only the "best" workers
was acting on "superstitious" knowledge.
9) Management was "tampering" with the system by
rewarding and punishing the Willing Workers.
10) People are seldom the source of variability.
11) Slogans, Exhortations and Posters Are At Best
Useless To The Willing Worker.

Questions for the Willing Workers
How did the Worker of the Day feel?
How did the Probationary Worker feel?
What did they do different?
Implications for Lessons Learned programs?
How did the rewards and punishments affect the
workers?
Was the knowledge of the workers put to work by
the company?
How would you like to work for this company?
Do you work for this company?

The Recorder and Inspector(s)
Why were the willing workers not allowed

to count and record their own beads?
Was there value to an independent count?
Was it worth the cost?
What would happen if the inspectors
falsified data?

The Foreman
What was the effect of State your first name

and spell it?
What did the Foreman do to control outcomes?
When should procedure compliance be
mandatory?
Were the communications one-way or two-way?
What were the costs to the company of the
Foremans actions?
What could the Foreman have done?
Dr. Deming
14 Points
System of Profound Knowledge
Appreciation for a system
Knowledge about variation
Theory of Knowledge
Psychology of people
Photo credit MIT/CAES

How can I apply these lessons?
How you present your data
How you interpret your data
How you take actions from your data
Set directional goals vs. arbitrary numerical targets
How you treat and lead people
Inspection practices
Systems interactions
Personal transformation of thinking, feeling, interactions,
behaviors
Affecting others transformation

But I dont make the charts!
Im not a manager!
Is there a safety or quality committee?
Annual improvement plans / goals?
May you suggest alternatives to current
practices?
Who can you team with?
Find the friendly neighborhood statistician
Sometimes you are never so powerful as
when you are powerless (Tom Peters)
Data Presentation
How effective were:

The table of numbers?
Ranking the workers?
Bar Chart?
Moving Average?
Color Coding?
The control chart showed us the process
was stable and predictable.
Its so simple, just plot a few points - Deming

Implications of a Stable Process
No amount of explanation of,

corrective action to, or causal
analysis of an event will fix a broken
stable process
What if we did a root cause analysis of
why Red Bead #298 fell in hole #19 of
the paddle?
What about Find it Fix it?

The SPC Lens
Control Charts show
whether the process is
stable (common cause
variation), or whether there
is a changing condition
(special cause variation)
The following charts are

from a project I worked on
with the US Department of
Energy

Chart as Found
6.00
5.00
4.41
Incident Rate
4.18
4.00
3.00 2.74
2.48 2.24
2.00 1.84 1.72 1.84 1.72
1.55 1.58 1.72
1.81 1.52
1.39
1.42 1.36 1.33
1.00 1.27 1.12 1.22 1.22 1.32
1.22
0.12
0.00 0.12
O
De
Ja
Fe
Ap
Ju
Au
No
Ju
Se
ct
ar
ay
nu
br
ne
ce
ly
r il
gu
pt
ve
ob
ch
ua
e
ar
m
m
st
m
e
y
be
r
be
r
be
y
r
r
r
FY06 FY07 FY08
FY06 Cumulative FY07 Cumulative FY08 Cumulative
FY07 NWC Rate

SPC Lens Applied
8
7
FY 06 = 1.9
FY 07 = 1.4
FY 08 to date = 0.3
6
UCL
5
Average = 0.98
3 (Nov 05 - Apr 07
without Mar 06, Sep 06, Oct
06)
0
May-06
May-07
Nov-05
Nov-06
Nov-07
Apr-06
Aug-06
Sep-06
Apr-07
Aug-07
Sep-07
Jan-06
Feb-06
Jun-06
Jan-07
Mar-06
Jul-06
Feb-07
Jun-07
Mar-07
Jul-07
Oct-05
Dec-05
Oct-06
Dec-06
Oct-07
Dec-07
Personal Transformation
A person, once transformed, will

Set an example
Be a good listener, but will not compromise
Continually teach other people
Help people pull away from their current
practices and beliefs and move into the new
philosophy without a feeling of guilt about the
past
From The New Economics, Deming

Resources You are Not Alone
Hanford Trending Primer
http://www.hanford.gov/rl/?page=1144&parent=169
In2InThinking
http://www.in2in.org
Deming Electronic Network

http://deming-network.org
American Society for Quality

http://www.asq.org
The Elsmar Cove Discussion Board

http://elsmar.com/Forums/index.php

White Bead Conclusions
A microcosm of current practices
A vision of improved practices
A new philosophy
Statistical lessons
Human lessons
Process lessons
Spread the word!


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Dr.

Demings Red Bead

Fluor Government Group ESH&Q

ELR Consulting, Inc.

Did you have an Aha moment?

Lessons from the Beads

What can I do?

ELR Consulting, Inc.

ELR Consulting, Inc. 3

ELR Consulting, Inc. 4

ELR Consulting, Inc. 5

ELR Consulting, Inc. 6

ELR Consulting, Inc. 7

Why were the willing workers not allowed

ELR Consulting, Inc. 8

What was the effect of State your first name

Photo credit MIT/CAES

ELR Consulting, Inc. 10

ELR Consulting, Inc. 11

How effective were:

ELR Consulting, Inc. 13

No amount of explanation of,

ELR Consulting, Inc. 14

The following charts are

ELR Consulting, Inc. 15

ELR Consulting, Inc. 16

A person, once transformed, will

ELR Consulting, Inc. 18

Deming Electronic Network

American Society for Quality

The Elsmar Cove Discussion Board

ELR Consulting, Inc. 19

ELR Consulting, Inc. 20

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