Quotes by W. Edwards Deming

“You can not define being exactly on time.”

“It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best.”

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”

“Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.”

“The emphasis should be on why we do a job.”

“Any manager can do well in an expanding market.”

“We should work on our process, not the outcome of our processes.”

“If you stay in this world, you will never learn another one.”

“Does experience help? NO! Not if we are doing the wrong things.”

“A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system. A system must have an aim. Without the aim, there is no system.”

“Whenever there is fear, you will get wrong figures.”

“What we need to do is learn to work in the system, by which I mean that everybody, every team, every platform, every division, every component is there not for individual competitive profit or recognition, but for contribution to the system as a whole on a win-win basis.”

“It is important that an aim never be defined in terms of activity or methods. It must always relate directly to how life is better for everyone... The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgment.”

“It does not happen all at once. There is no instant pudding.”

“If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.”

Learning is not cumpulsory... neither is survival.

Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.

Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.

The prevailing - and foolish - attitude is that a good manager can be a good manager anywhere, with no special knowledge of the production process hes managing. A man with a financial background may know nothing about manufacturing shoes or cars, but hes put in charge anyway.

We are here to make another world.