Deming, a pioneer in the world of safe and lean

I just finished reading an excellent book….

“Out of another @#&*% Crisis – Motivation through Humiliation” (available at ASQ and Amazon) grades US business on how well they stack up against Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s principles. Deming’s 1982 book, ‘Out of the Crisis’ put forth 14 principles for leaders and organizations desiring to improve quality and service. For those not familiar with Deming, I encourage you to do an internet search and find out more about the man and his contribution to quality and a philosophy of management that is perfectly suited to safety.

Deming, a statistician, is credited with starting post-WWII Japan on the path of producing quality in its products. He is regarded as having had more impact upon Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage. Despite being considered something of a hero in Japan, he was only just beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at the time of his death in 1993.

Deming is also recognized for the concept of PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) for continuous improvement. Many of you will recognize this concept as the foundation of today’s management systems. If you read ANSI / AIHA Z10 – 2005, Occupational Health and Safety Management System, you will find PDCA prominent throughout the entire document. What is less well understood is that Deming’s work in Japan also led to development of the many tools, practices and thinking associated with lean production.

More importantly, Deming’s 14 points hammer home the concepts of leadership and respect for people. With safety as a foundation for respecting people and using lean tools like 5S, value stream mapping, just-in-time, workflow, knowledge folders and a dozen other tools, the organizations practicing lean and safe are doing so because of Deming’s wisdom.

So, you ask, how does US business stack up with Deming. According to Mike Micklewright, author of ”Out of another @#&*% Crisis – Motivation through Humiliation,” US industry has earned mostly “Fs” and “Ds.’” He provides data and observations to support his personal characterization of industry’s performance. Like Micklewright, I too, am a huge fan of Deming. I spent many a Wednesday night in the late ‘80s as part of a Deming workgroup working with UAW colleagues to better understand how we might incorporate Deming’s teachings into health and safety. One of the most notable things we did was to apply statistical process control to the fatality data in General Motors to better understand our constancy of purpose.

At that time, fatality data for large global companies was typically a metric of number fatals million hours worked or 100,000 employees. You could compare performance to other companies or past years but learned little of root cause due to limited sample size. We engaged a statistical expert and gave him 30 years of fatality history.

Cranking the data, we learned something that would drive dramatic improvement in GM and much of industry. Traditionally, GM and the UAW focused on lockout because of the number of machines and injuries related to hazardous motion. What we had overlooked was that 19% of the fatals in a 30-year period came from falls from elevation. Just two common cause issues (lockout and falls) accounted for nearly 50% of the fatalities over 30 years.

Armed with the data, we went to management, and undertook a massive effort related to design, and providing proper fall protection when the hazards could not be designed out. Within a couple of years, we saw significant improvement in reducing fatalities. GM has continued the journey and boasts the best injury/illness record in the automotive industry. The knowledge for the beginnings of that journey came from Dr. Deming.

Apart from the tools of lean and safe, what Deming did best was underscore the value of the human mind. I can’t think of a better mentor to underscore safety as a 24-7 value than Dr. Deming. Companies that follow his principles will truly be on the path to sustainable growth.

Please join us for more discussion about safety and sustainability at the LinkedIn group, SHE, Sustainability and Lean.