Deming's 14 Points

Dr. Deming's legacy lives on in the Japanese hotel car companies that dominate today. Although his 14 points were initially applied to the manufacture of cars our students should know that if they do the following 14 things they have a fighting chance of running a successful business in good times and quite possibly bad ones, too. Of course, it will also make them stand out from far too many restaurant and hotel companies that want to do things as cheaply as possible under the guise of "customer service!"

1. Create a constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service.

2. Adopt the new philosophy.

3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.

4. End the practice of awarding business based on the pricetag alone (reminds me of the old Dutch saying, "cheap is expensive).

5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service.

6. Institute training on the job.

7. Institute leadership.

8. Drive out fear.

9. Break down barriers between departments (case in point, when will we end the back of the house versus front of the house mentality?)

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force.

11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the work force and numerical goals for management (which is tough do naturally when your hospitality business is a revenue stream for owners/operators).

12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship (especially when the term "McJob" resides in the Webster dictionary to define our industry).

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.

14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.

Imagine how much we could improve the quality of guest services if we could do even half of them!