Aunt Teddy and Uncle Wawa
Justin Smith, a passionate mathematical statistician at the US Census Bureau, was pet-sitting for a friend. While looking for a book to read, he glanced at their bookshelf, and to his surprise, he was staring at the spine of a first-edition copy of Walter Shewhart's Economic Control of Quality Of Manufactured Product. He was surprised because his friends were not statisticians and had no other books on statistics. This book is uncommon even for a mathematical statistician; however, it is even more remarkable for his friends since he did not know them to have any interest in statistics.
Intrigued, he opened the book to a random page and started reading. A few items fell out of the book. One was a clipping for a course on quality control taught by Dr. Shewhart, and the other was a newspaper clipping of Shewhart's obituary. The course was "Statistical Theories and Methods Applical to the Economic Control of Quality in Manufactured Products." It was a graduate course taught by Dr. Shewnart at the Stevens Institute of Technology in the fall semester 1931. Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely dedicated to mechanical engineering. This course, the first college course ever taught on statistical quality control, was led on Tuesdays and Thursdays and required a ten-dollar registration fee.
The obituary was a clipping from a newspaper from the New York Times, March 13, 1967, buried on page 37, titled Dr. Walter Shewhart Dies at 75; Author on Quality Control. "Author on Quality Control" That's all? The obituary listed an impressive number of accomplishments; however, there was no mention of Dr. Shewhart's 1924 "eureka" moment that any student of Deming would have expected to read. It was this memo that introduced the world to the control chart. Not a single word that Dr. Shewhart changed the world from toasters to nuclear power plants, from lean to Agile, and to DevOps, and beyond. Just author on Quality Control.
Shewhart was born in North Canton, Illinois, and died at 75 in a Troy Hills, New Jersey nursing home. He worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1925 till his retirement in 1956. Bell Labs in Murry Hill, New Jersey, was the home of many important inventions made while Dr. Shewhart was there. Bell Labs institutionalized Shewhart's scientific methods and control charts. It would be hard to believe that Shewhart didn't influence and possibly rub elbows with several of the industry's impressive scientists.
Here is a list of some famous people who worked at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey from 1925 to 1956:
Claude Shannon (1916-2001) - Mathematician and "father of information theory." He has made fundamental contributions to digital communications and computing at Bell Labs.
John Bardeen (1908-1991) - Physicist who co-invented the transistor in 1947 at Bell Labs. He later won two Nobel Prizes in Physics.
Walter Brattain (1902-1987) - Physicist who co-invented the transistor with Bardeen and William Shockley in 1947.
William Shockley (1910-1989) - Physicist who co-invented the transistor with Bardeen and Brattain. Later, he founded Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory.
Herbert F. Mataré (1912-2011) - Chemist who pioneered early solar cell technology at Bell Labs in the 1950s.
Arno Allan Penzias (born 1933) - Radio astronomer who worked at Bell Labs in the 1960s. Co-discovered cosmic microwave background radiation, earning a Nobel Prize.
Philip W. Anderson (1923-2020) - Physicist who made fundamental theoretical discoveries including Anderson localization. Won Nobel Prize in 1977.
Maurice Karnaugh (1924-2006) - Engineer who invented Karnaugh maps at Bell Labs in 1953—a fundamental tool in digital logic design.
The obituary also lists many distinguishing events in Dr. Shewhart's impressive career. He received a degree from the University of Illinois in 1913. The obituary does not mention that he completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in four years. In 1917, he moved to Berkeley, California, with his new wife, Edna, to teach and obtain a Ph.D. in physics at the University of California Berkeley.
Also mentioned in the obituary is Dr. Shewhart's involvement in the World War II efforts. Deming receives a lot of well-deserved credit for the quality efforts produced by American manufacturers during World War II; however, Shewhart also played an instrumental role in developing and adopting statistical quality control techniques for World War II military production efforts. During the 1930s, Shewhart served as a consultant to the United States War Department and other government agencies, promoting statistical methods to improve quality in manufacturing.
Shewhart specifically advised that the military should adopt statistical quality control procedures for procurement and manufacturing activities related to the war. This recommendation directly led to the military establishing extensive training programs on statistical methods for its suppliers and contractors. The American War Standards on Quality Control, American War Standards Z 1.1–1941, Z 1.2–1941, and Z 1.3–1942, which served as instructional texts for the military, incorporated Shewhart's ideas. These standards defined the American control chart practice. Further training courses were developed at Stanford by Holbrook Working, E. L. Grant, and W. W. Deming. This intensive course on statistical quality control was taught at Stanford University in 1942 to representatives of war industries and procurement agencies. Shewhart also directly contributed to the training efforts, teaching about control charts and statistical thinking at institutions like MIT, which hosted military training programs. So, while not on the front lines, Shewhart's statistical quality control techniques formed the foundation for the military's adoption of statistical methods for quality in WWII manufacturing. His promotion and teaching of Quality Control were crucial to its wartime spread.
One of the most famous acronyms in managerial history--PDCA, or what Deming would call PDSA--is absent from the obituary. C.I. Lewis, the American pragmatist and Mind and the World Order author, fascinated Shewhart. In his book, Shewhart's Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control refers to Lewis' Mind and the World Order. Dr. Shewhart created his famous Statistical Process Control (SPC) and his notions of PDSA a decade earlier; however, they were not formally published until 1939. This seminal work was the first time anyone had used the views of epistemology and the theory of knowledge to apply it to mass production. Shewhart described the "old" process as the three separate steps of specification, production, and quality in a linear approach. His "new" strategy was applying the scientific method as a cycle where specification is the hypothesis, production is the experiment, and quality is the test of the theory. Deming later referred to this as the Shewhart Wheel, which later was coined as PDCA.
At this point, the fascinated mathematical statistical petsitter Justin decided to open up the first page of the book and was surprised to see a note signed by the author, Dr. Walter Shewhart:
To the best little girl in the world whose inspiration made this book possible - Edna
-Walter
As Justin's friend returned, he asked about the book. Justin's friend Darin was similarly clueless about the origin of the book. Darin, however, did mention that his middle name was Walter. Intrigued, Darin wrote a letter to his mother. His mother wrote back and said that his middle name was in honor of Dr. Walter Shewhart. Justin's grandparents were close friends with Edna, the best little girl in the world. Edna was called Aunt Teddy by Darin's family. In addition, Darin's mom said they were a third set of grandparents. During their vacations, their families spent a lot of time together. Dr. Shewhart was referred to as Wawa by Darin's family. Darin's mother remembered Wawa's story about raisins in raisin bread that were much hotter than the bread when they came out of the toaster—a classic child's scientific method story, I suppose.
Whenever Justin is in Oregon, Darin's mom says he is welcome to see family artifacts. Justin visited Darin's mother a few years later and found a treasure trove of items. Another signed first-edition copy of Walter Shewhart's "Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control" was also found. Shewhart had marked it as 1st copy dated 12/14/39. Deming is credited with editing Shewhart's book, which he encouraged him to write. During his visit to Oregon, Justin found several other tributes and pictures of Aunt Trudy and Wawa.
Legacy of Walter Shewhart
The legacy of Walter Shewhart is profound and far-reaching in the field of quality control. His invention of Control Charts revolutionized the way manufacturers approached managing process variation. By enabling the distinction between common cause and special cause variation, Shewhart provided manufacturers with a proactive tool for improving process performance. This approach allowed them to address issues before they affected the final product, leading to reduced waste, increased productivity, and enhanced customer satisfaction. Shewhart's methodology became the foundation for statistical quality control and statistical process control; his contributions continue to shape modern quality improvement practices and have had a lasting impact on the industry. The techniques developed by Shewhart are still widely used today and form an integral part of the scientific method in the field of quality control. The legacy of Walter Shewhart is a testament to his dedication to advancing the field of quality management and his commitment to helping manufacturers achieve excellence in their processes.
The influence that Walter A. Shewhart had on W. Edwards Deming cannot be ignored. From their time together in the 1930s to their collaboration on influential publications, Shewhart's mentorship and teachings laid the foundation for Deming's renowned contributions to the field of quality management. Key figures like W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran emerged as significant beneficiaries of Shewhart's teachings, applying his principles to revolutionize quality management and improvement practices.
Awards and Recognition for His Work
Walter Shewhart's contributions to the field of statistical quality control have earned him numerous awards and recognition throughout his career. He was honored with the creation of the prestigious Shewhart Medal by the American Society for Quality (ASQ), recognizing exceptional contributions and leadership in the field.
In addition to this notable recognition, Shewhart was a member and president of several professional organizations. He was an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS), and the International Statistical Institute (ISI). These memberships exemplify the high esteem in which Shewhart's work was held by his peers. His legacy continues to be celebrated and recognized by professional organizations, serving as a testament to the enduring relevance of his work in statistical control and process improvement.
