PLSO The Oregon Surveyor March April 2021

Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org 19 invited Deming to assist in the rebuilding of Japanese industry. At that time prod- ucts made in Japan were considered to be of very low quality. Some Japanese cot- tage industries had located in the village of Usa so they could claim their prod- ucts were made in the USA! This did not help very much. When Japanese cars be- gan arriving in the United States in 1960, Detroit automakers sneered. But we all know the end of the story. It is the Jap- anese and Korean automakers that are now building their cars in the “real” USA, and they are known for quality. Under Deming’s stewardship, Japan be- came renowned for producing innovative high-quality products. Deming is regarded as having had more impact upon Japa- nese manufacturing and business than any other non-Japanese individual. Dem- ing taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations can increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs (by reducing waste, rework, staff attrition, and litigation while in- creasing customer loyalty). The key is to practice continual improvement and think of manufacturing as a system, not as bits and pieces. In 1960, Deming became the first American to receive the Second Or - der of the Sacred Treasures from Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. An accompa- nying citation stated that the people of Japan attributed the rebirth and success of their industry to his work. Today the highest prize awarded by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) for industrial achievement is the Deming prize. This is comparable to the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award, estab- lished by the U.S. Congress in 1987 to recognize quality and business achieve- ments of U.S. organizations. The building blocks of Deming’s qual- ity management are 14 key principles for transforming business effectiveness: 1. Create constancy of purpose for the improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive, stay in business, and provide jobs. 2. Adopt a new philosophy of cooperation (win-win) in which everybody wins and put it into practice by teaching it to employees, customers, and suppliers. 3. Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality. Instead, improve the process and build quality into the product in the first place. 4. End the practice of awarding business based on price tag alone. Instead, minimize total cost in the long run. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, based on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust. 5. Improve constantly, and forever, the system of production, service, planning of any activity. This will improve quality and productivity and thus constantly decrease costs. 6. Institute training for skills. 7. Adopt and institute leadership for the management of people, recognizing their different abilities, capabilities, and aspirations. The aim of leadership should be to help people, machines, and gadgets do a better job. Leadership of management is in need of overhaul, as well as leadership of production workers. 8. Drive out fear and build trust so that everyone can work more effectively. 9. Break down barriers between departments. Abolish competition and build a win-win system of cooperation within the organization. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team to foresee problems of production and use that might be encountered with the product or service. 10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets asking for zero defects or new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force. 11. Eliminate numerical goals, numerical quotas, and management by objectives. Substitute leadership. 12. Remove barriers that rob people of joy in their work. This will mean abolishing the annual rating or merit system that ranks people and creates competition and conflict. 13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement. 14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody’s job. This column is not intended to be a prim- er on the quality management theories and principles of W. Edward Deming, but rather to provide background and con- text for my future comments on quality assurance as it pertains to our profes- sion. I would, however, suggest that any study of Deming’s principles would well be worth the effort. I suggest two books by Deming that provide much greater details of his principles: Out of the Crisis and The New Economics for Industry, Gov- ernment, Education . In my next column, I will lay out my five- point plan for quality assurance and client service focused on our surveying and mapping profession, along with some real work examples. x Fred Henstridge has more than 50 years of pro- fessional experience in geomatics engineering, surveying, mapping, transportation engineering, municipal engineering, and GIS management. After 10 years with Caltrans, he started his own geomatics and civil engineering firm, which was acquired by Psomas and Associates in 1982. Since that time, he has been a Principal of Psomas, and Corporate Director of Geospatial Services and GIS. He is currently Director of Psomas’ Federal Programs Development. Featured Article Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organizational processes.