Mt Hakone
"It would be better if everyone worked together as a system, with the aim for everybody to win."
W. Edwards Deming
Numerous biographies have been cited regarding W. Edwards Deming's speeches and his impact on Japanese management, Japanese manufacturers, and overall concepts of quality. The Mt. Hakone Conference Center was the site of his most famous management lectures in August 1950.
As part of the 1951 Japanese Census planning, W. Edwards Deming was asked to participate in 1947. The Allied powers occupying Japan asked him to help with the census conducted by the United States Department of the Army. Bringing him over was at the request of General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur became frustrated with Japan's shattered postwar economy, which prevented him from making a phone call without the line going dead. Ironically, he never actually worked on the Japanese 1951 census.
However, W. Edwards Deming's expertise in quality-control techniques, statistical product quality administration, and involvement in Japanese society led the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) to invite him to lecture at JUSE. Unlike many of his counterparts, he showed his warm disposition toward everyone, according to JUSE. Anyone who learned from him or became acquainted with him was deeply impressed by his strong personality. He had a deep love for Japan and the Japanese.
The Japanese union of science and engineers invited W. Edwards Deming to Japan in 1950 to teach the Japanese industry how to use statistical product quality administration to improve productivity. According to Deming, he expressed that he witnessed a magnificent workforce, unsurpassed management, and the best statistical capabilities in the world. Deming believed that these three forces could be combined and put together to create superior Japanese quality. In a few years, instead of being seen as shoddy, it became the standard.
Dr. S. Moriguti told Dr. Deming in 1991 that he was communicating with 80% of the Japanese top management in Hakone. In the next five years, W. Edwards Deming gave attendees the tools and ideas to help Japanese manufacturing become an economic power. Hakone was the culmination of a series of lectures by Deming communicating this new message of confidence. W. Edwards Deming spoke to the members of the Industry Club, a group of 45 top people from the Japanese industrial sector, at one of the meetings earlier that year. Most of Deming Japan's teaching focused on statistical product quality administration. Japan's leaders feared it would be difficult to remove the reputation of making cheap and inferior products. Deming insisted that quality products would change that. In 1950, Deming began promoting this message in a series of lectures. The lectures emphasized the importance of statistical product quality administration with responsibility for product quality management in industry.
After five years, he said, they would have invaded the world's markets, and manufacturers would scream for protection. Japan was desperate for confidence by the time he arrived at the famous Hakone meeting. Within four years, the Japanese fulfilled his prediction. According to some leaders present at the Hakone meeting in 1950, Dr. Deming was the only individual in Japan who believed that Japan could achieve superior quality. Dr. Deming was particularly interested in Japanese heritage.
"Most of the Japanese were in a servile spirit as the vanquished, and among allied personnel, there were not a few with an air of importance. In striking contrast, William Edwards Deming showed his warm cordiality to every Japanese whom he met. His high personality deeply impressed all those who learned from him and became acquainted with him. The sincerity and enthusiasm with which he did his best for us still lives and will live forever in the memory of all concerned." Kenichi Koyanagi - The Deming Prize (1960)
Between June and August 1950, Deming trained hundreds of engineers, managers, and scholars in statistical product quality administration and quality concepts through a series of lectures delivered. Deming also addressed senior Japanese executives (including Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony Corp.) Deming's message to Japan's key executives was that improving quality would reduce expenses while boosting productivity and market share. He also emphasized that it was management's responsibility for product quality.
Several Japanese business leaders and manufacturers applied his techniques extensively and achieved previously unimaginable levels of productivity and quality. The improved quality combined with lower costs led to new international demand for Japanese products. In part due to Deming's teachings, Japan rose to become the world's second-largest economy in the post-war era.
Systems Thinking was one of the main themes of Dr. Deming's Hakone lecture. A classic example of Systems Thinking is Peter Senge's book The Fifth Discipline. Deming's Hakone lecture transcripts in Japan contain one of the earliest documented examples of Systems Thinking. In contrast to Frederick Winslow Taylor's well-established ideas, Deming's ideas were early proponents of Systems Thinking. Generally, Taylor's approach to process thinking was more linear. In a Tayloristic process, you might implement a series of steps and execute them one by one. Deming's ideas follow a more non-linear approach to process thinking by providing feedback from the system as an opportunity to learn and improve. Statistical product quality administration is based on this idea. It is also known as statistical process control. Years later, the idea of Systems Thinking would be one of the four lenses for Deming's System of Profound Knowledge.
Due to the success of his 1950 lectures and historical Mt Hakone meeting, William Edwards Deming declined to receive royalties. In December 1950, JUSE's directors created the Deming Prize to honor his friendship and kindness.
Note: The actual transcripts of the Mt. Hakone summit can be found here:
Mt. Hakone Speach
