# Deming's 14 Points ## The Idea in Brief Most management practices optimise the wrong things. Quotas, targets, slogans, annual reviews, buying on price — they look like discipline but they damage the system. Deming's 14 Points are a systematic attack on these practices. The core argument: quality comes from improving the system, not exhorting the workers. --- ## Key Concepts ### The System, Not the People Deming estimated that 94% of problems come from the system, not the workers. Exhorting people to try harder, setting quotas, ranking performance — these assume the problem is motivation. Usually it isn't. The problem is how the work is organised. When you blame workers for system problems, you get fear, gaming, and local optimisation. When you fix the system, performance improves without the pressure. ### The Most Counterintuitive Points **Cease dependence on inspection.** Don't inspect quality in at the end — build it in from the start. Mass inspection is an admission that your process produces defects. Fix the process instead. **End awarding business on price alone.** The cheapest supplier often costs more in total: rework, delays, variation. Move toward fewer suppliers, longer relationships, shared improvement. **Eliminate slogans and targets.** "Zero defects!" and stretch targets create adversarial relationships. Workers can't meet targets when the system won't allow it. The targets become a source of fear, not motivation. **Eliminate quotas and management by numbers.** Quotas focus on quantity, not quality. They encourage gaming. Numerical goals without a method to achieve them are just wishes. **Drive out fear.** Fear prevents people from raising problems, asking questions, or suggesting improvements. A workforce that's afraid can't improve the system. **Remove barriers to pride of workmanship.** Annual ratings, forced rankings, management by objective — these demotivate. People want to do good work. Remove what stops them. ### The Transformation Deming wasn't offering techniques. He was describing a philosophy: constancy of purpose, continuous improvement, system thinking, respect for people. The 14 points are implications of that philosophy, not a checklist. --- ## Implications **In operations:** Before adding inspection or tightening targets, ask whether the system can actually produce what you're demanding. If it can't, fix the system. **In management:** Most performance problems aren't motivation problems. They're system problems that look like motivation problems because that's easier to blame. **In procurement:** Total cost matters more than unit price. The cheapest supplier who causes variability or rework isn't cheap. **In culture:** Fear is the enemy of improvement. If people are afraid to surface problems, you'll never learn about them until they become crises. --- ## Sources - [[Out of the Crisis]] — Deming's original articulation of the 14 Points and his "System of Profound Knowledge" - [[The New Economics]] — Deming's later, more philosophical treatment of the same ideas --- ## See in Notes - [Accounting for Widgets](https://www.anishpatel.co/accounting-for-widgets/) — Measuring what's easy rather than what matters; Deming's warning about management by numbers - [The Execution Trap](https://www.anishpatel.co/the-execution-trap/) — Blaming execution when the system is the problem - [Unknown and Unknowable](https://www.anishpatel.co/unknown-and-unknowable/) — Deming's observation that the most important figures are unknown or unknowable