BROOKS CARDER & PATRICK RAGAN

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, APRIL 30, 2006 02:01:57 AM]

A former senior manager at Ford told us that the single aspect of Ford’s quality transformation n the 1980s that gave him the most pride was the dramatic change in management's relationship with the union. He said it was typical to see executives and hourly workers seated side by side in a classroom, something that would have been unheard of prior to the transformation.

The chairman of Ford during the early stages of the transformaton was Donald Petersen. In a memoir of that period (Petersen and Hillkirk 1991), Peterson mentions that he frequently toured Ford plants. His critical criterion for evaluation was whether the plant manager knew the hourly workers. He said it was clear that some had memorized the names just before his arrival. Managers who did not know the workers did not stay with the company.

After graduate school, I spent several years as a scientist in a university. I then entered business and spent 13 years as a Manager.Initially I tried the "my way or the highway" approach to management, but it not work for me. I began to develop more cooperative relationships with my staff, and things went much better. However, the science of management practice, including the use of strong threats as motivators, was contrary to the accepted scientfc principles I had been taught and had taught to others.

In 1988, I encountered the work of Dr W Edwards Deming, the man who created a revolution in quality management in America. I had an epiphany. Dr Deming's teachings made sense of many of the questions and confusions I had encountered in tryng to reconcile what I knew as a scientist with what I saw as common practice in Business. From 1988 to Dr seminars and form a casual acquaintance with him. By that time Dr Deming was famous ast he man responsible for the rise of Japanese industry following World War II. But who had gone unheeded in America.

Only after we had lost our industrial leadership to the Japanese was his knowledge recognized in America. In 1982 he was engaged by Ford. The programs that grew from his teachings helped move Frod from the brink of bankruptcy to far and away the most profitable U.S. auto manufacturer by 1995.

Many have suggested that quality programs were a flavor of the month that is now stale. That is probably because many companies treated them as a flavor of the month and failed to embrace the principles seriously and go through the discipline needed to establish a successful quality programs and their results in American industry.

Their findings indicate that performance measured by both accounting variables and stock returns is improved for firms adopting TQM. The improvement is consistently stronger for firms with more advanced TQM systems." Dr Deming's ideas are at the heart of lean manufacturing and Six Sigma, both very successful current approaches to the improvement of business performance.

Our experience with Dr Deming and his teachings led us to adopt the principles and methods he taught. The Deming approach depends on some fundamental shifts in thinking, away from what is still common and traditional in management. Dr Deming's assumptions are, of course, much better supported by scientific evidence than are many practices that were and still are popular in business. However, the impact of science on common belief and practice is often very late in coming.

Galileo was not the first and certainly not the last scientist to experience a rather pointed rejection of what seemed (and with the benefit of hindsight, to us) obvious scientific truth. Usually change does not happen until it is demanded by the marketplace. Einsten's theories were widely disputed until the power of nuclear physics converted everyone. Few listened to Dr Deming until the quality of Japanese products overwhelmed American products in the marketplace.

Dr Deming's approach to management s founded on two fundamental principles. Although based in science, these principles form the philosophical framework of his system.