Quotes in process thinking
Stamping out fires is a lot of fun, but it is only putting things back the way they were.
A company could put a top man at every position and be swallowed by a competitor with people only half as good, but who are working together.
The consumer is the most important point on the production-line.
Your purpose is to identify where in the process things go wrong, not who messed up. Look for systemic causes, not culprits.
Best efforts are essential. Unfortunately, best efforts, people charging this way and that way without guidance of principles, can do a lot of damage.
Why did the system allow that mistake to be made?
What? You can’t expect us to design systems that prevent mistakes from being made.
Yes I can. That is much more sensible than expecting people never to make a mistake.
PDCA is the essence of managerial work: making sure the job gets done today and developing better ways to do it tomorrow.
Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration.
Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.