William Deming and his Management Theories

William Deming was an American statistician. He was born into a poor family which made it difficult for him to decide to proceed to college education. When he was in his senior years, Deming was encouraged by his mathematics teachers to attend a university. With much determination, Deming earned his PhD in Theoretical Physics at Yale University.

Deming received many job offers after college but he chose to work with the Department of Agriculture doing laboratory research. In ten years, Deming was able to develop nitrate fertilizers which resulted in huge agricultural yields. Modern Statistics offered a big boost to this milestone.

After his stint at the Department of Agriculture, Deming moved to the Bureau of Census. He used his knowledge in Statistics to develop a new breed of survey which is based on sampling. This technique was later used worldwide. When he retired, Deming worked with the New York University as Statistics professor.

During the World War II, Deming used Statistics to serve in the arms industry. With his friend and fellow statistician Walter Shewhart, he sponsored management seminars that would improve the quality and productivity of military armaments. Thousands of managers and engineers from the arms industry attended the seminars. However, the seminar was not well attended by the senior executives.

After the War, Deming was called to apply his sampling techniques to the Allied Forces Headquarters in Tokyo. While there, Deming met several Japanese managers who were interested to know his management theories. He gave lectures and seminars with the condition that the senior managers would attend his seminars. Deming held his first lecture in July 1950.

Deming’s lecture led to revolution that became a turning point in Japan’s recovery after the War. Japanese products which were the result of Deming’s management theories flooded the US markets. These products were easily accepted in American markets because they were cheaper and better.

Many American companies held on to the Taylor management principles. They prohibited Deming’s management theories until 1980. A TV program entitled “If Japan can, why can’t we?” opened the eyes of many American executives. Later, Deming started giving lectures.

Deming’s management theories are encapsulated in the following: “Management means placing the processes under control, coordinating operations and preparing for the future”.