Dr. Deming Quotes – Continuous Improvement

“One gets a good rating for fighting a fire. The result is visible; can be quantified. If you do it right the first time, you are invisible. You satisfied the requirements. That is your job. Mess it up, and correct it later, you become a hero.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“Fear invites wrong figures. Bearers of bad news fare badly. To keep his job, anyone may present to his boss only good news.”
“Money and time spent for training will be ineffective unless inhibitors to good work are removed.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“Top management should publish a resolution that no one will lose his job for contribution to quality and productivity.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“No one can measure the loss of business that may arise from a defective item that goes out to a customer.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“95% of changes made by management today make no improvement.” ~W. Edwards Deming

“A common disease that afflicts management and government administration the world over is the impression that “Our problems are different.” They are different, to be sure, but the principles that will help to improve quality of product and of service are universal in nature.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“Defects are not free. Somebody makes them, and gets paid for making them.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“We cannot rely on mass inspection to improve quality, though there are times when 100 percent inspection is necessary. As Harold S. Dodge said many years ago, ‘You cannot inspect quality into a product.’ The quality is there or it isn’t by the time it’s inspected.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“Whenever there is fear, you will get wrong figures.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“Nothing can do you so much harm as a lousy competitor. Be thankful for a good competitor.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“It will not suffice to have customers that are merely satisfied. An unhappy customer will switch. Unfortunately, a satisfied customer may also switch, on the theory that he could not lose much, and might gain.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“You can not inspect quality into a product.” ~W. Edwards Deming

Dr. Deming Quotes

“A company could put a top man at every position and be swallowed by a competitor with people only half as good, but who are working together.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“The moral is that it is necessary to innovate, to predict needs of the customer, give him more. He that innovates and is lucky will take the market.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“Quality is made in the board room. A worker can deliver lower quality, but she cannot deliver quality better than the system allows.
“There is no substitute for knowledge.” ~W. Edwards Deming

“A bad system will beat a good person every time.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“The consumer is the most important point on the production-line.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“Hopes without a method to achieve them will remain mere hopes.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“The aim proposed here for any organization is for everybody to gain – stockholders, employees, suppliers, customers, community, the environment – over the long term.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“The greatest waste in America is failure to use the abilities of people.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best.” ~W. Edwards Deming
“A leader is a coach, not a judge.” ~W. Edwards Deming