In my opinion Dr. Deming had the knack of breaking a problem down to its simplest components, and then to "see" a statistical pattern across problems.
Though I have not confirmed this yet, my understanding is that Dr. Deming at one time said:
“True values do not exist.”
That statement is thought provoking. If you dig deep you can define the meaning for yourself. For me, it is the difference between calculated and reality. It goes along with another statement I believe he made:
“Uncontrolled variation produces low quality.”
In this statement you begin to understand that “variation” exists everywhere. You can design to a “true value”, but the reality will always be a variation, therefore a “true value” will never exist. And as this variation is allowed to go uncontrolled, quality is no longer repeated. Reduce the variation you float closer toward a true value, never meeting it, however quality increases.
I am always amazed at those who say “if you do this then it will produce that every time”. Then when the product is not 100% perfect once again, they blame the process, force an adjustment to bring it back to “true value”, with the repeat adjustment for every factor that changes the product. This promotes such a small window to process in that it makes for headaches to those who have to maintain it. Then we begin to say the equipment is not robust enough. We add more money, more tweaking (which I call tampering), with the same result that we are constantly chasing to provide “true values” that will never exist.
Variation will always exist. It is up to us to understand variation and to develop a process window that produces a product the customer is willing to pay for. When the “real value” is measured, is it within an acceptable range? Do we understand what caused it to be in that range? Do we need to improve control on that aspect?
This will be another topic, however it is appropriate here. How much do you poka-yoke a process? There comes a point when the poka-yokes are so many and tuned so tightly that you cannot get a product out. The equipment is down again and again for adjustment. Whatever happened with quality being the responsibility of the people who provide value?
I think you made a very good point. As we learned at PUC, the customer defines quality. The better job that an organization does to design a product or service to meet as many customer's likes, better quality will be perceived. I think Apple products and services are a perfect example. Before the Ipod and Iphone, I had never owned an Apple product. When compared to their competitors, Apple's products and services appeal to me more.
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