W. Edwards Deming’s Fourteen Management Points vs Traditional Management
Generally, we cannot differentiate Deming’s Philosophy from Traditional Management. Traditional Management mostly applies to Human Resource Management while Deming’s apply mostly on product or industrial management. I will try to compare each Deming’s Management Points and Traditional Management by combining Product/Industrial Management and People Management.
These are Deming’s 14 Management Points vs Traditional Management(TM):
1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive, to stay in business, and to provide jobs.
-same as TM
2. Adopt a new philosophy. We are in a new economic age, created by Japan. We can no longer live with commonly accepted styles of American management, nor with commonly accepted levels of delays, mistakes, or defective products.
-In traditional management style, this management point relies on the manager’s ability to adapt to his environment or the nature of his products. This depends on how he will approach these problems and act accordingly.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.
-Quality will reduce inspection costs but not necessarily increase (significantly) in material costs. Traditional method, especially if competition is inconsequential, will sacrifice quality for profitability.
4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost.
-On the context of Product Management, traditional pricing is based on the companies’ desired profit margin and sometimes on the availability of competition.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
-same with #4
6. Institute training on the job.
-In TM, traditional managers rely solely on available talent. He doesn’t improve it gradually by means of commissioning a training for his people. His staff must cope with the fast-changing pace of requirement of their jobs on their own, else, traditional managers will hire somebody else to do the job because traditional managers think that training is a waste of time and resources on his and his company’s part.
7. Institute supervision: the aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.
-For traditional management, this is not applicable. Traditional managers are authoritarians, they don’t share supervision and power. An overhaul? I don’t think so..
8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
-same as #7.
9. Break down the barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team to foresee problems of production and use that may be encountered with the product or service.
-All issues must go through the boss, in the case of traditional management. Teamwork is ok, but unsupervised collaboration is prohibited.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force which ask for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships. The bulk of the causes of low productivity belong to the system, and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
-Traditional Managers are perfectionists. This doesn’t apply.
11. Eliminate work standards that prescribe numerical quotas for the day. Substitute aids and helpful supervision.
-same with #10
12. Remove the barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality. Remove the barriers that rob people in management and engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means abolishment of the annual rating, or merit rating, and management by objective.
-same with #10
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and retraining.
-same as #6
14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.
-same with TM
