Quality as Standard

"Learning is not compulsory ... neither is survival." William Edwards Deming (1900-1993), the American statistician who advanced the concept of total quality management, was famously direct and to the point. As evidenced by his highly influential role in the late 20th century boom of Japanese products and in the resurgence of the U.S. car industry in the 1980s, learning is essential to long-term survival.