Quotes from W. Edwards Deming

If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing.

No one can measure the loss of business that may arise from a defective item that goes out to a customer.

Management by results - like driving a car by looking in rear view mirror.

All anyone asks for is a chance to work with pride.

Lack of knowledge... that is the problem.

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

You should not ask questions without knowledge.

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.

In God we trust; all others bring data.

Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.

Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.

If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing.

A bad system will beat a good person every time.

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

Experience by itself teaches nothing... Without theory, experience has no meaning. Without theory, one has no questions to ask. Hence, without theory, there is no learning.

The worker is not the problem. The problem is at the top! Management!

In God we trust; all others must bring data.

Every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it does.

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

If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you are doing

dissatisfied customer does not complain: he just switches.

it will not suffice to have customers that are merely satisfied. Customers that are unhappy and some that are merely satisfied switch. Profit comes from repeat customers—those that boast about the product or service.

She learns, after she finishes the job, that she programmed very well the specifications as delivered to her, but that they were deficient. If she had only known the purpose of the program, she could have done it right for the purpose, even though the specifications were deficient.