Major contributor to operations management - Research Paper Example

This is a philosophy invented by Dr William Edwards Deming born in 1900and later became an American statistician, professor, author, lecturer and consultant. Deming received a BSC in electrical engineering from the University of Wyoming at Laramie (1921), an M.S. from the University of Colorado (1925), and a Ph.D. from Yale University (1928). Both graduate degrees were in mathematics and physics. Deming had an internship at Bell Telephone Laboratories while studying at Yale. He later worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Census Department.

While working under Gen. Douglas MacArthur as a census consultant to the Japanese government, he famously taught statistical process control methods to Japanese business leaders, returning to Japan for many years to consult and witness the economic growth he had predicted would come as a result of the application of techniques he had taught them. As an author Deming wrote Out of the Crisis (1982–1986) and The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (1993), which includes his System of Profound Knowledge and the 14 Points for Management.

In 1947, Deming was involved in early planning for the 1951 Japanese Census. The Allied powers were occupying Japan, and thus asked by the United States Department of the Army to assist with the census. While in Japan In 1960, the Prime Minister of Japan (Nobusuke Kishi), on behalf of the then Emperor Hirohito, awarded Deming Japan’s Order of the Sacred Treasure, Second Class recognizing his contributions to Japan’s industrial rebirth and its worldwide success. Demings expertise in quality control techniques, combined with his involvement in Japanese society, led to his receiving an invitation from the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE).

A number of Japanese manufacturers applied his techniques widely and experienced heretofore unheard-of levels of quality and