As Americans we just can’t seem to get past numbers. Listen to any sports broadcast and you will be swamped with numbers. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is ONLY the fourteenth time in six years that Andre Carter has hit a ground ball to second base!” “Way to go…… Andre!”
\n As a student of the teachings of the late W. Edwards Deming, the American that taught the Japanese quality methods after WWII, I am reminded every day of the damage the near total dependence on numbers is doing to the United States. There was a time in the past that running our companies on numbers got us by, that time is past.
\n Today, all over the world, business is adopting a quality first model. The Japanese, who’s country lay in ruins just 60 years ago, make some of the world’s finest products. It took just 30 years from Dr. Deming’s first visit there for NBC to declare in it’s 1980 White Paper, “If Japan Can, why Can’t We?”. This is a proud nation. Need I say, a great nation. But proud will not get you a cup of coffee in this new world economy. We must as a nation, let go of the numbers game. After setting the Japanese on a course to world class quality, Dr. Deming was all but ignored in his own country until 1980. It was then, after Deming had turned 80 years of age, and the U.S. was being beaten by Japanese quality at every turn, that Ford Motor Company, Campbell’s Soup, Harley Davidson, and a few others heeded the call to quality. Today, less, way less than 1% of U.S. companies have the knowledge that is practiced by 80% of Japanese firms. We have been in decline in the world economy for 30 years. Let’s not be so proud as to refuse to see that change is needed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Americans we just can’t seem to get past numbers. Listen to any sports broadcast and you will be swamped with numbers. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is ONLY the fourteenth time in six years that Andre Carter has hit a … Continue reading