The 2008 Tunghai Deming Scholar Lectures,( and A Story)

The 2008 Tunghai Deming Scholar Lectures

Theme: Profound Knowledge (Dr. Deming’s)

Speaker: Mr. William W. Scherkenbach

Date and Venue:

Lecture I.

Oct. 16, 1515-1700 in Chinese Society for Quality, Taipei.

Lecture II/III

Oct. 17/18 in Tunghai University, Taichung

Host

Tunghai University

Co-host

Chinese Society for Quality.

Please visit Tunghai Deming Scholar Lectures 2008 《戴明修煉III：戴明的淵博知識》for more detailed information.

A Story of Tunghai Deming Scholar Lectures 2008

( by Hanching Chung)

This week’s Lecture Series is a story of three-generation teacher-student interactions in USA and Taiwan.

Bill told us that he first met Dr. Deming the fall of 1972 at New York University’s Graduate Business School.

Our Taiwanese Deming Circle has reached its 44-year-mark since Dr. Deming’s letters to late Mr. Liu Cheng in 1964 for the translating and updating of “Dr. Deming’s Lectures on Statistical Control of Quality” in Japan 1950.

One line in Dr.Deming’s International Activities listed in The W. Edwards Deming Institute® website (biography) as follows,

“Consultant to the China Productivity Center, Taiwan, 1970, 1971”

http://deming.org/

Many people in the CPC that time were highly involved in the establishments of the Industrial Engineering Department of Tunghai University and the Chinese Society for Quality Control. This is the background we have these lectures this week in CSQ and in Tunghai.

We translated and published Bill’s two books in 1996. We met Bill Taipei in 2006 and made good friends.

We were thrilled to hear that Bill will work in Taipei from January 2008.

We were very grateful for Bill to promise to deliver Tunghai Deming Scholar Lectures 2008 early July and HanChing Chung wrote “A Note” for it, and Bill set the theme of this year lecture series: Profound Knowledge.

“A Note”

The purpose of Tunghai Deming Scholar Lectures 2008 is to to foster understanding of The Deming System of Profound Knowledge™ to advance commerce, prosperity and peace in Taiwan, so that Taiwan can maintain its leading role in various fields.. The Lectures are sponsored by a group of friends of Mr. Hanching Chung who like to dedicate it in the memory of some of his deceased teachers and friends of Tunghai University, honoring the memory of their Tunghai Days. We particular like to express our thanks to Mr. William W. Scherkenbach ‘s kindness to agree to deliver the lectures.

It is easy to cite the praises from the presses about Dr. Deming’s legacy. A few samples for your reference. .In 2005 BBC Radio 4 there is an episode “Do It Like Deming” (July 03, 2005 Business on the box ) In Fortune Magazine’s 75^th Anniversary( July, 2005) special section of “20 That Made History”in last 150 years, ”Dr. Deming 1950”was among one of the key historical decisions. Dr. Deming was also one of “The 50: People Who Most Influenced Business This Century” (with General Douglas MacArthur, Oct,1999, the Los Angeles Times). Not to mention the well cited as one of the “revolutionary thinkers” of the history of Wikipedia article "U.S. News & World Report".』 (Oct. 10:52, 1991).

Unfortunately, most people’s understanding of Dr. Deming’s true legacy, Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge are still very limited and in many ways misleading. For example, I made a comment about the article “Red Bead Experiment” by Mr. Mike Johnson which claims his red beads kit is the original one and he “donated an original paddle and set of beads to the ASQ Organization to be displayed in their new headquarters building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Information about this display is available in the Deming Newsletter dated Spring 2005..”(http://knol.google.com/k/mike-johnson/red-bead-experiment/3p1wt3p4nkpas/2#)

I suggest him to change the title to "a red beads kit for ASQ display" and as for the ASQ 2005 Display in Deming Newsletter, the readers should read the original report. Please visit. Deming Newsletter dated Spring 2005. http://deming.org/pdfs/DemingInteractionSpring2005.pdf

I also recommend readers to read Dr. Deming's books for the meaning of the game. The reason is very simple that we can easily trace the Red Bead Experiment at least since early 1950s in Dr. Deming’s Japan lectures and the texts of lectures in Taiwan in late 1960s.

It is obvious that Taiwan is a leading place for Dr. Deming’s teachings thanks to many pioneers of productivity and quality movement since 1950s. In fact, this 2008 Tunghai Deming Scholar Lectures are dedicated to some leading advocates and contributors during past half century.

We are most lucky to invite Mr. William W. Scherkenbach as our speaker. We published his two masterpieces (”Deming’s Road to Continual Improvement” and ”The Deming Route to Quality and Productivity: Road Maps and Roadblocks”, both with Dr. Deming’s most favorable forewords) in 1996 and ever since then Bill become one of our honorable Taiwanese friends. He now works as the Vice President Quality Management, Six Sigma and Best Practices for Liteon Technology Corporation.