Welcome back, it's Monday and I hope yours is off to a good start. Today is day eight of my 14 day effort to briefly cover each one of Deming's 14 points. I started the 1st of April if you'd like to go back and start there. Whatever you choose, I hope these are useful.

Eliminate Arbitrary Quotas

Quotas are something Deming is well known for disliking. Seemingly in tune with his distain for this we find the Toyota Production System and its Kansan system. Considering Deming was arguably the instigation for a=what we call Lean/TPS today this makes complete sense. Let's talk about why Deming advises against numerical quotas.

Quotas are a typical mechanism used to drive productivity. We set a goal for 25 widgets a day, by golly, we're gonna get 25. Quotas by themselves present a situation where the goal is set and the system to get there is not considered. Similar to the last post about slogans, these "tools" are often thrown into use without the leadership aspect of business getting a chance to work. 

I think an interesting piece of Deming's thoughts on slogans and quotas is he wasn't suggesting they should never be used. He ws proposing you do the background work first. Then you will know WHY you need 25 widgets a day. You will know WHY you want a slogan about the production rate. Deming, correctly, realized most organizations do NOT do the work before they setup quotas. Then, when they are missed, they penalize the employees when it is not their failing.

The two points here then are really about leadership. Find out why your system can produce what your customer wants. Find out why it can't, fix the problems. fix the process bottlenecks. Fix your process so then, if you choose to, you can put up a number and it is rooted in capability. And then support your people to meet those goals. Train them, teach them, support them. Lead.

Start. Somewhere. & Point Eleven

I'm not against quotas. I will support your company in finding the why, how, where, and when to put your systems on track to meet the demand. My program is all about squeezing out the problems. Setting up intelligent solutions based on your why, your where, your how. we're not gonna talk about numbers until we understand what you can make better. We'll put your processes on track to beat your own expectations. And we will do this simply, with simple questions in the right places.

If you'd like help, reach out. You can setup an appointment at the bottom of the page. Or find me on LinkedIn. Thanks for reading.