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The Japanese paid excellent attention to Dr. Deming and applied what they learned. We live with the results of how well they applied this knowledge. In every quality survey, Japanese automobiles appear at the top. Go to any store for every imaginable kind of goods, and Japanese products are there. It isn’t an accident.
Dr. Deming and American Manufacturers
During the 1980s, when American businesses finally realized the threat to their markets, American industry invited Dr. Deming to teach them what he had taught the Japanese. Some companies learned, and they are still reaping the rewards of a focus on quality.
Among Dr. Deming’s many clients were General Motors and Ford. Their personnel had the same opportunity as the Japanese engineers who went on to design and build vehicles for Toyota, Honda, Mazda, and Datsun (now Nissan). Did they take advantage of that opportunity? A cursory look at the results of any recent automotive "Initial Quality Survey" from J.D. Power and Associates makes it apparent that they did not. |
How did American businesses miss this opportunity? Dr. Deming urged them to focus on quality. Instead, they chose to focus on quantity. They chose to focus on the quarterly report to shareholders.
The Chain of Modern Economics
The publicly held corporation in America lives and dies by its quarterly financial report. The quarterly report drives the value of the stock. Every corporate decision, every management choice, good or bad, is based on its effect on the quarterly report. That’s only three months! In contrast, the typical Japanese company bases its plans on one-, five-, twenty-, and even fifty-year cycles. That’s right, fifty!
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