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This book was designed to help readers understand the differences
between modern management practices and those taught by Dr. W. Edwards Deming.
Beginning with the foundations of modern management, Delavigne and Robertson examine
the influences (identified as neo-Taylorism) which have shaped managers and organizations
over the past 100 years. With an axiomatic approach to
summarize the similarities and differences between neo-Taylorism and Deming's
philosophy, readers come away with a more in-depth appreciation for why so many
organizations fail in their struggle to achieve high levels of profitability and
many simply fail to survive. By keeping an open mind, readers can learn how Deming's
philosophy could help them to answer questions such as: - Why
isn't the management approach we're using more effective?
- Why
hasn't the quality program we've installed improved our business?
- How
should we work to improve our processes?
- How do
we chose the right approach to provide a quality product/service/output?
Until he moved to California three years
ago, Kenneth Delavigne spent half of his life in New York where he worked for
IBM in a variety of positions. At IBM, he spent 12 years in the quality area --
as an instructor and advisor on process improvement, an internal assessor of development
processes, and as a course developer in IBM's Quality Institute. Mr.
Delavigne became involved in IBM's company-wide quality program that began in
1981. He first attended Dr. Deming's four-day seminar in 1982, and immediately
became one of Deming's students. Over the years he maintained close contact with
Deming, attended his lectures at NYU, and wrote papers which Deming reviewed.
He attended Deming's seminar again in 1988, and in 1989 accompanied Deming on
a consulting trip with General Motors. During this time, Mr. Delavigne wrote several
quality-related papers as internal IBM technical reports. Shortly
after moving to the Bay area, Mr. Delavigne met Dr. Perry Gluckman and was influenced
by his unique perspective on Deming's philosophy. Since mid-1992, Mr. Delavigne
has been an independent consultant and teacher in quality methods, and has assisted
Dr. Deming in teaching his four-day seminars. J.
Daniel Robertson's career spans 21 years of experience as an engineer and manager
of high tech manufacturing and customer service operations in California's Silicon
Valley. He was first exposed to Dr. Deming's theories in 1980 and was guided by
Dr. Perry Gluckman in applying the philosophy to both production and administrative
processes. Since 1982, Mr. Robertson has worked at 3Com Corporation, a global
data networking company which has grown from $16 million in yearly revenue to
over $700 million. From 1984 to 1989, Mr. Robertson applied Deming's teachings
and built a high-volume manufacturing organization. He also led the development
of several in-house quality training courses based on Deming's theories and attended
his second Deming seminar in 1988. In 1989,
Mr. Robertson worked with a small group of associates to establish the "Bay
Area Deming Users Group," which brings 50 to 60 Deming-trained consultants
and business/government/education practitioners to a monthly forum for learning
and understanding Deming's philosophy and system of profound knowledge. Today,
Mr. Robertson is still an active practitioner of Deming management philosophy
as a manager within 3Com Customer Services Organization, where continuous improvement
teams have been established to focus on the timely repair and return of customers'
products.
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