Re: TQM-like stuff for WC

[csjhs@eiu.edu (Jeanne H. Simpson)]

Joan & James

Actually, the principles of TQM were developed by an American, W. Edwards
Deming.  He received no support for his ideas in this country, took them
to post-war Japan, where a struggling economy made the Japanese rather
more alert to the possibilities.  Only after the Japanese made themselves
serious economic competitors did we start looking again at Deming's ideas.

The difficulty with many efforts at TQM on college and university campuses
is that the initiative tends to come from entities other than faculty,
which immediately makes faculty suspicious and that the attempt to impose
an industrial analogy on institutions of higher education is always
fraught with problems.  However, there are in Deming's basic principles
(14 of them, as I recall) some very good ideas that are certainly
applicable.  I recommend taking a look at the basic stuff, rather than
what has been done at this or that company, and adapting it directly.
One of the first principles Deming cites is:  Cast out fear.  Amen.

Jeanne Simpson
csjhs@eiu.edu