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Red Bead Experiment: Part 6

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:53:47 +0000

This is Part 6 of 6 of the Deming Red Bead Video Tutorial. View the last video in the series below.

Video Transcript

Instructor: ¦ testing. So what can we do different? Well, let’s take this in an ISMS context. This is ISMS, after all. This is the five core functions of ISMS. Now, for the five core functions, we start with defining the work scope. Let’s work the procedure as it is. What’s the work scope?

All: [inaudible, 00:20]

Instructor: Make white beads, very straight forward. What are the hazards?

All: Red beads.

Instructor: Red beads. Boy, we got this licked, don’t we? We’re ISMS. What do we do for hazard control?

Well, we told you about it. We gave you a procedure. You got a set of tools. We performed the work, right? We gave lots of feedback, didn’t we? Wrong way, did somebody say? One-way feedback, ah, very interesting, one-way feedback from management to the workforce, but it was very accurate and fair feedback, was it not? Nothing could be more fair than how many red beads did you make? But did we use that to change anything? No.

Well, okay. Let’s talk about ISMS as it should be and how we do it in the Department of Energy. Do we need to change our definition of the work scope? It’s a pretty good work scope, make white beads. Are there any hazards other than there’s some red beads there? No. I suppose not, but what about hazard control? Anybody got some ideas on hazard control?

Male: [inaudible, 01:35]

Instructor: Don’t put the red beads back in the thing. That would eliminate that. I assume you want to put the white beads back in but not the reds. As we do it we can not only have the QA count them, but remove them. Now, what was the purpose of QA, by the way? Make sure how to count but they certainly weren’t helping, like they could have removed the red beads. I probably wouldn’t have let them but they could have. Did I hear another comment? There’s some other things we can do.

Male: Take the red beads out.

Instructor: Take the red beads out. Now, that would be a lot more productive probably. You get rid of them at the source. I mean, we can get rid of them as we produce them but we could get rid of them at the source. Go through here, get rid of those red beads. Sounds good to me. That’s a good hazard control.

How should we do that as we perform the work though? What’s that?

Male: First article.

Instructor: First article. Meaning?

Male: Inspection [inaudible, 02:26]

Instructor: Inspect the incoming product. Very good idea, or work with the supplier of the product so his outgoing product doesn’t have any red beads. That’s very good. We can certainly allow you to pick the white beads out by hand, but it’s probably more effective to get rid of the red beads in the first place.

Now what about feedback? Now I gave you a good example of feedback here which is what we are doing. We are using this thing called control charting. See, the problem is in the old days with the former contractor, any month when the safety injury rate was less than average, there was an article in our local paper. Safety’s better than average this month. We’re getting better.

Of course, the next month it’d be above average. You didn’t hear anything though. The following month it’d be below average and it’d be, Safety’s getting better. We’re better than average. Every time we were lucky and were below average you get the message, safety is improving. Didn’t work.

There’s people out there believe, Oh, I just got to motivate the work force. I’ve got to convince them they’re doing good. Of course, if you come to a person, say, Cliff, you’re doing great. Very proud of you. Great job. Now are you going to do anything different?

Cliff: Nope.

Instructor: No. As any sane person is not going to do anything different which means we just keep making nine red beads every time, plus or minus nine. We have to fix the process. How about that stop, think, act, review? That’s a real program out there, by the way. It can work if, as part of thinking, the worker is allowed to get involved. Remember, a key of ISMS is involvement. Was the worker involved as part of any of that STAR?

A worker made the beads, but yes, we have to look at how do we utilize the good ideas of the workforce. Management does own the process. Management is not the bad guys here. Management is helping to coordinate things and focusing the workers input so we can fix these processes. Then the goal becomes, achieve a statistically significant improvement.

For example, I mentioned seven in a row below average would be a sign of an improvement. We don’t set a numerical goal. We run these charts and say, What do we need to do? When we get that significant improvement, that’s our feedback that we had an effect. So we’re not just saying, We came in below average this month. We must be good.

That takes some patience because you just can’t say, I have changed today and see the effect tomorrow. We all know it takes longer than that. Don’t we? I’d like to turn the mic over to Steve and a few other thoughts and we’ll get some input from the audience.

Male: Just a couple of comments and I will build on the one thing that you mentioned earlier which was, when he asked if there was a CAMS or DTS representative in the audience, this chart and the idea of variation and how you approach correcting the variation or reducing the variation has a lot of important impact to how we do corrective action management on the site.

If you look at this chart, you realize that it is stable, as Steve described and how you approach improving this process is different than if the dots or the points were outside the control limits. If you have something extraordinary happen that’s outside the control limit, that’s probably an easily identified cause. You can go and fix it. Get rid of it. It’s not part of the process. But the variation here, the problems that you’re looking at here are part of the process and they are not going to go away unless you change something very fundamental in the process, as Steve has been discussing, by changing the feed stock or perhaps the procedure by which you select the beads.

It’s important then, in deciding your strategy of how you’re going to approach corrective action. If you take a fire fighting or special cause approach and try to apply it to the inherent variation here, you’re not going to achieve lasting improvement. We do that, at least in my experience here in the last three and a half years, that is our consistent approach.

The fire fighting approach is applied to almost every problem. Those are the people that are recognized. Those are the people that are promoted and so on, because fire fighting is something that’s visible. However, to really achieve lasting improvement, you have to look at the inherent process variation and tackle that. That’s a lot harder work, but that’s what needs to be done.

Instructor: One more comment on procedures. What was the purpose of the four inches and the 47 degrees? Not much purpose to it in this case, was it? It did not help the hazard, did it? So an overly prescriptive procedure can cause us trouble.

Now if this is, when I was in the navy I worked in a torpedo maintenance facility and if you work with those torpedoes the wrong way they could go boom. Kind of ruin your day if they went boom. We had procedures that sometimes had the equivalent of, Don’t lift this more than four inches, and you tilt it exactly 47 degrees. Sometimes that is important, called the graded approach in ISMS.

If I’m dealing with an explosive or a nuclear hazard, I may end up with some four-inch criteria there. If I’m dealing with red beads, fairly low risk evolution, although it costs us our contract, the 47 degrees didn’t make any sense, now did it?

What we want you to do as part of this, we’ve put this in an ISMS context, when you leave this conference, we are depending on you because what makes a difference is you. Think about the red beads at your workplace. How many times are you reacting to just the latest thing? Doing the fire fighting, trying to treat a consistent event with, ‘I got to find out why that happened?’ Why did you get 11 beads, or where is my worker of the day? Where’s my stellar worker of the day?

Male: [inaudible, 08:23]

Instructor: There were two. What did you guys do different? Nothing. You were lucky. How did you feel about that? Are you ready to go home and post that plaque on your wall? You got your candy. At least we gave you something tangible, but rewards can be negative. Rewards can actually hurt if people don’t understand what they did different to get the reward. I would like to ask for any comments from the audience. Other than that, no comments? I think we kind of incorporated everything as we went.

Would like to wrap this up. I’d like to thank Steve. Thank you for coming. I certainly appreciate the invitation to come and do this and hopefully now with a video record we can expose some more people to this. Thank you very much for attending.

Get instructions on how to conduct the Red Bead Experiment >>>

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Red Bead Experiment: Part 5

admin — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:49:54 +0000

This is Part 5 of 6 of the Deming Red Bead Video Tutorial. In this video, we learn tricks to facilitating such an event. Watch below and be sure to also view Part 6, the final video in the Red Bead Experiment Series.

Video Transcript

Steve Prevette: On to QA we go.

Male Voice: Six dismissed.

Steve Prevette: Well, okay. Put that back in. Now, the key here seems to be the second dip is always better than the first one. So do the second dip first. [laughter] Oh, a little modification here. Okay. Except that modification didn’t work too good. You left a hole. Can’t sell holes. Got to be sure of that count. I’m glad I have my ethical QA department here. Except you weren’t dismissed. Hold on.

Male Voice: Sixteen dismissed.

[audience groan]

Steve Prevette: Oh, sixteen. You see what happened when you changed side? Okay. Up. Forward. You just¦ I kept my best workers and¦ Yeah, we’re just trying to record here. I’ve got to make these beads and get them out the door. Just put them down there. [laughter] Now, you’re not dismissed yet. We’re slipping here.

Male Voice: Thirteen.

Steve Prevette: Thirteen. Well please total up the number of beads for the day, 29, 38, 42, something like¦ 57. Are you serious, 57?

Male Voice: You got me on the wrong line.

Steve Prevette: Fifty-seven.

Male Voice: You lost it. You haven’t got it.

Steve Prevette: Ah, it doesn’t matter. Fifty-seven. [laughter] Because we kept our best workers, and I had my worst day yet. So nothing more from you. Mr. President, we completed our fourth day of work with our best workers and we had 57 red beads. Our worst day to date.

Steve Byers: Well, all I can say is that the management team is stunned and disappointed. This is certainly not what we thought would happen keeping our best, above average workers. We have bet the company on this contract, and so because it has been cancelled, because of our poor performance, I’ll ask you to please dismiss the remaining workers as well as the QA team, recorder, and so on. We’re closed for business.

Steve Prevette: Here’s your severance pay and¦ [laughter] your severance pay. And please give our work force a round of applause.

[clapping]

Steve Prevette: Well that was the red bead experiment. Now this was a tool that Dr. Deming used during his four day seminars. And we’re using it here to demonstrate some ISMS principles and we’re going to critique what just happened. By the way, I’m Steve Prevette. I’m from Fluor Hanford, ES and H, and the president is Steve Byers, representing the American Society for Quality.

Well our first step here is, we used a lot of feedback here. ISMS sure includes a lot of feedback. But maybe we could do something different here and plot some dots. We’re just going to put a little graph up. If I can ask the president to help by reading off some points as we go, let us go forth.

Steve Byers: Ready?

Steve Prevette: Yep. Ready.

Steve Byers: Eight.

Steve Prevette: Eight.

Steve Byers: Ten.

Steve Prevette: Ten.

Steve Byers: Ten.

Steve Prevette: Ten.

Steve Byers: Nine.

Steve Prevette: Nine. Now, I came here to work early on with Tank Farms and they were wrapping one fiscal year after the other. Only producing first fiscal year data, and they put a nice curve function through on Harvard Graphics, and fed a curve like this and said, Notice the fine, improving trend to zero. [laughter] We won’t do that, of course. Okay. What was willing worker number five?

Steve Byers: Eleven.

Steve Prevette: Eleven. Hmm.

Steve Byers: Eight.

Steve Prevette: Eight.

Steve Byers: Second day.

Steve Prevette: What happened to that dip down to zero? Hmm. Oh, well. Second day.

Steve Byers: Ten.

Steve Prevette: Ten.

Steve Byers: Seven.

Steve Prevette: Seven.

Steve Byers: Thirteen.

Steve Prevette: Thirteen.

Steve Byers: Seven.

Steve Prevette: Seven.

Steve Byers: Ten and nine.

Steve Prevette: Ten and nine. Boy, it’s just bouncing all over the place, isn’t it?

Steve Byers: Seven.

Steve Prevette: Seven.

Steve Byers: Eleven.

Steve Prevette: Eleven.

Steve Byers: Seven.

Steve Prevette: Seven.

Steve Byers: Four.

Steve Prevette: Oh, four. Hmm.

Steve Byers: Eleven and nine.

Steve Prevette: Eleven and nine. And the last day with our best workers.

Steve Byers: Sixteen.

Steve Prevette: Sixteen.

Steve Byers: Thirteen.

Steve Prevette: Thirteen.

Steve Byers: Nine.

Steve Prevette: Nine.

Steve Byers: Four.

Steve Prevette: Four.

Steve Byers: Nine.

Steve Prevette: Look at that. Linear regression right on down. Four. Okay. what was after four?

Steve Byers: Nine and six.

Steve Prevette: Nine and six. Boy, this is all over the place, isn’t it? And, of course, if we’re going to produce this as a chart, we’d probably put bars under it, and three dimensions, and colors, and the whole works, and there’s our performance chart, right? What does it mean?

Well, let’s offer something here. We’re going to make what is called a control chart, which is Hanford procedure 4294. When you work performance indicators and when you work ISMS, we use these control charts. Now the first thing you’ve got to do is determine what was the average. And we total up all the days, 56 and 56 and 49 and 50. I’m going to do this without a calculator even. Everybody thinks control charts are hard to do. I’m doing this without a calculator, without a computer. Twenty-one, 28, 2, 7, 12, 16, 21. Two hundred and eighteen¦ 218 total red beads, for 24 people pulled the red beads. And that gives me 9, 18, 36, looks like the average is nine.

So we draw a line across the screen at nine. An amazing thing occurs, does it not? Half the data’s above the average, and half the data’s below the average. That’s amazing isn’t it? Yet how many people are grading our facilities as above average, below average? How many people’s children get graded as above average or below average at school? We do performance appraisals. Who’s above average, who’s below average? We’re fating 50% of the population to be below average. And it’s always going to happen, right? Doesn’t say anything, but we do it.

Well, what we do that should be better is the next thing I’ve got to do is express the spread of this data, which is to put three standard deviation control limits on the line. Now, in this case, this is a plus on distribution because I’m counting defects. This works well when you’re counting defects. The standard deviation is the square root of the average. The square root of nine is three. Nice round number. Three times three, three standard deviations, is nine again. So the upper control limit is 18, and the lower control limit is zero. UCL average, LCL. There we have a control chart. No computer, no calculators, just a control chart.

Now we interpret this. What is happening is I actually have an extremely predictable process. We couldn’t understand why every worker was changing from day to day, from shift to shift. But I really have a predictable process. I average nine, I get no more than 18, I get no less than one, because zero is on the lower control limit. So anywhere from one to 17 red beads is what I get. And that’s what we got. We have no seven in a row above average, or any other rules for a control chart. So I have a stable process. A stable process.

Yet, what was I doing? What was the effect of having the $30 on the table? Nothing. Do we have bonus pay here? What’s its effect? What was the effect of doing performance appraisals? Do we do performance appraisals? Interesting. What was the effect of the procedure?

Male Voice: Controlled system.

Steve Prevette: Controlled system?

Male Voice: Controlled results.

Steve Prevette: Yeah, controlled results, but vary widely. It certainly did not meet the customer’s demands, did it? How about this numerical goal? Three. Weren’t you finally motivated when you had this number three out there? Yet in the MYPPs our numerical targets for OSHA recordable case rates. What good does the numerical target do? Interesting. So what can we do different? Well let’s take this in an ISMS context.

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Red Bead Experiment: Part 4

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:42:01 +0000

This is Part 4 of 6 of the Deming Red Bead Experiment Video Tutorial.

But, before we get to the Red Bead Video Tutorial, here are some famous quotes of Dr. W. Edwards Deming.

Famous Quotes of Dr. W. Edwards Deming

Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.
Quality is everyone’s responsibility.
If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.
You can not inspect quality into the product; it is already there.
Innovation comes from the producer — not from the customer.
It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best.
Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival.
Confusing common causes with special causes will only make things worse.
The prevailing style of management must undergo transformation. A system can not understand itself. The transformation requires a view from outside.
If you stay in this world, you will never learn another one.
The result of long-term relationships is better and better quality, and lower and lower costs.
If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.
We should work on our process, not the outcome of our processes.
Quality starts in the boardroom.
There is a penalty for ignorance. We are paying through the nose.
A manager of people needs to understand that all people are different. This is not ranking people. He needs to understand that the performance of anyone is governed largely by the system that he works in, the responsibility of management.
A committee appointed by the President of a company will report what the President wishes to hear. Would they dare report otherwise?
Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place
Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.
Does experience help? NO! Not if we are doing the wrong things.
A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system. A system must have an aim. Without the aim, there is no system.
It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.
It is important that an aim never be defined in terms of activity or methods. It must always relate directly to how life is better for everyone… The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgment.
The job can’t be finished only improved to please the customer.
The average American worker has fifty interruptions a day, of which seventy percent have nothing to do with work.
The customer is the most important part of the production line.
When asked what single event was most helpful in developing the Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein replied, ‘Figuring out how to think about the problem’.
“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.

The Red Bead Experiment Video #4 is below.

Video Transcript

Instructor: … department. We believe in pay for performance. This money will motivate you as you come up and stop, think, act, review and perform your work. So let’s start Day Number Three. Willing worker Number One, without the pen; there is no pen in the list of materials.

Yes, you’re checking it empty. Did you stop, though, first? Stop and think; you’re thinking, right? Okay, I think you’re thinking; now, act. Just against the edge of the container, yes, right on the end; rotate, up four inches, 47 degrees forward; very good, and on to QA, a very finely motivated worker here.

QA Inspector: Seven.

Instructor: Good, Curt, your best performance yet. I can see that this fine management team is making a difference. And Marty, let’s continue that improving trend here. And remember, visualize the 30; now it’s $30, three red beads, not thirty red beads, $3. And into the bead supply, just straight and smooth through, bury the paddle with the beads. If you keep messing around with it, you end up missing a hole though. So on to QA; in fact you missed two holes. I can’t sell holes; I can’t sell holes. I can only sell white beads.

QA Inspector: Eleven, dismissed.

Instructor: See, if you mess around with this procedure, Marty, 11. Such a declining, well here comes the master of declining performance. Okay, willing worker Number Three, Ed, 10 to 13 and I expect a turnaround in this performance here, Ed. Very good, up four inches, 47 degrees, and onwards to QA. Very good; we’ll review your performance, part of the stop, think, act, review program.

QA Inspector: Seven, dismissed.

Instructor: Ah, you were thinking, Ed. Now comes Tom, my replacement worker who has been studying his procedure, I see. And you stopped and you think, now you act; rotate it through the horizontal. The beads will cover all the holes, up four inches, up four inches and 47 degree tilt; very important; and on to QA.

QA Inspector: Four.

Instructor: Four, round of applause; my replacement worker, four. But however, Tom, you see the number three over there? Number three, okay. Ken, it is your shift now. Okay, up four inches, 47 degrees forward, onwards to QA. Not much expectation here, but…

QA Inspector: Eleven.

Instructor: Yes Ken, back to eleven; my probationary worker. Sid, my cleanup man, my worker of the day the first day. Let’s see, I’m expecting great things from you, Sid. Up four inches, and 47 degrees forward, and on to QA; onwards, onwards. You haven’t been dismissed yet.

QA Inspector: Nine, dismissed.

Instructor: Nine, well, consistent, I suppose. I don’t understand this. Tom, you can get four; you got four. But look at your coworkers; two elevens up there. Boy, what is the source of this problem here? Obviously Marty and Ken. Well, total me up for the day.

QA Inspector: Forty-nine.

Instructor: Forty-nine, ah, improvement; see, setting sun. At least putting some money forward leads to some improvement. And as part of the day, I need you to do some bookkeeping here and total up the first three days’ performance for each worker. Meanwhile, I’ll report to the President. Mr. President, we completed the third day of production with our goals in place and our monetary bonus in place, and still there, on the table 49 red beads; a fine improvement.

President: I agree with you that it is an improvement, but I don’t think it’s sufficient. Our customers still aren’t satisfied with the number of defective product that we have been sending them. But management, of course, has got a solution to this dilemma as well. I would ask you to please rank the workers and identify for me those that are above average. We apparently made a mistake when we hired some of these workers, not all of them are above average. Let me know when you have the ranking.

Instructor: In fact, it does look like Tom is my best worker with 20; come forward and take the head of the line here. I’m very glad I chose you. I had a good recommendation on you. Now, the next worker is Curt at 25, so take the spot number two. Yes, you’re there. The next worker is 26, Sid, ah, Sid to the third spot. And the next worker is Marty and then Ed and then Ken. You already knew, okay.

Now, you see we give you feedback. This is performance appraisal time. Nothing could be more fair; this is your performance for everybody to see, all our stockholders in the world, they see your performance. We’ve ranked you from top to bottom. We notice that there is an average here. You three are above average; you three are below average. That is duly recorded. Mr. President we have completed our performance appraisal process.

President: Thank you and management has reviewed these results and the decision that we have made is to go forward with the prediction that our best workers will be the ones to rely upon in the future. Therefore, I would like you to dismiss the three not best workers. You may give them their severance pay.

Instructor: I want to thank you for your best efforts and the directions to the rock are down the road.

President: Now, going forward …

Instructor: Going forward …

President: We are in dire straits as a company; it’s is going to be very important to us to continue this improving trend. We predict that the best workers that we have kept on are going to help us do that. We would like to work them double shifts on the following day.

Instructor: Keed up production; double shift. Okay, so you’re going to record down is just go in order here. We got to make up time here. We got to get our productivity forward. Come on forth, two days. Yup, just put her right in; follow the procedure. Remember the $30 bonus; we still haven’t hit that yet. But you had four last time, so I’m sure you’ll have three this time. Up four inches, 47 degrees, come on, productivity must be kept up, on to QA. No talking.

QA Inspector: Nine, dismissed.

Instructor: Nine, after all those good things I said about you, Tom. Well, put nine someplace up there. Tom, second shift, come on, double shifting here. We have to keep that bead production up. Productivity, time is money. And four inches and 47 degrees, and on to QA. Ah, he must have thought about this. It looks like we have a recovery here.

QA Inspector: Four, dismissed.

Instructor: Four, very good. Why didn’t you do that the first time? Okay, next worker, willing worker number one, that’s Curt. Remember, stop, think, act, review. Right in there, yep, yep, rotate through to horizontal, up four inches, and 47 degree tilt. Well, okay, fine.

QA Inspector: Nine, dismissed.

Instructor: Nine; okay, now if you follow Tom’s performance you should now have four the next time. But four isn’t good enough, remember, three. Visualize that $30; it’s right there. Visualize, think, now act.

Male Voice: I can’t change the procedure.

Instructor: Well, this is a finely engineered procedure. If you must, you can mark up a procedure when you’re done and we’ll submit it to the Engineering Department. Okay, on to QA.

Get instructions on how to conduct the Red Bead Experiment >>>

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Red Bead Experiment: Part 3

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:16:42 +0000

This is Part 3 of the Deming Red Bead Experiment Video Tutorial.

But, before the tutorial, below is a biography of Dr. W. Edwards Deming (credit to the deming.org), the creator of the Red Bead Experiment.

Biography of Dr. W. Edwards Deming

William Edwards Deming was born in Sioux City, Iowa on 14 October 1900 to William Albert Deming and Pluma Irene Edwards.

As an adult, he used the name W. Edwards Deming.

His brother, Robert Edwards was born on 11 May 1902; his sister, Elizabeth Marie, later Elizabeth Deming Hood was born on 21 January 1909.

The family lived at 121 Bluff Street in Sioux City. In 1904, they moved to the Edwards farm located in Polk City, between Ames and Des Moines. The farm was owned by Pluma’s father, Henry Coffin Edwards (Pluma’s mother, Elizabeth Grant, died when Pluma was young).

In an effort to encourage settlement in the West, the United States government granted parcels of land (usually 40 or 80 acres) to citizens who agreed to settle, farm or develop the land.

William Albert Deming filed on 40 acres in Camp Coulter, later named Powell, Wyoming. The family moved to Wyoming in 1907. They rented a house in Cody until they could build on their own land. William Albert learned that his parcel was poor, useless for farming.

Their first dwelling was a shelter, rectangular in shape (like a railroad box car), covered with tar paper, often referred to as a tar paper shack. Water was pumped from a well. There was little protection from the harsh weather. The family was often cold, hungry and in debt.

Eighty years later, on a visit to Powell, Dr. Deming learned that the 40 acres was still referred to as the Deming Addition.

Pluma Irene and William Albert Deming were well-educated and emphasized the importance of education to their children. Pluma had studied in San Francisco and was a musician. William Albert had studied mathematics and law. Young Ed Deming attended school in Powell and held odd jobs to help support the family.

In 1917, he enrolled in the University of Wyoming at Laramie. In 1921 he graduated with a B.S. in electrical engineering. In 1925, he received an M.S. from the University of Colorado and in 1928, a Ph.D. from Yale University. Both graduate degrees were in mathematics and mathematical physics.

Dr. Deming studied music theory, played several instruments and composed two masses, several canticles and an easily sung version of the Star Spangled Banner.

Dr. Deming married Agnes Bell in 1922 in Wyoming. Agnes and Ed had a daughter, Dorothy. Agnes died in 1930. Dr. Deming married Lola Elizabeth Shupe in 1932. They had two daughters, Diana and Linda. Dorothy died in 1984.

Dr. and Mrs. Deming lived in Washington, D. C. for the remainder of their lives in the house that they bought in 1936. With her family at her side, Mrs. Deming died on 25 June 1986. Dr. Deming, surrounded by his family, died at his home on 20 December 1993.

Video Transcript

[applause]

Male Speaker 1: Okay. On the other hand, we have Ken.

[laughter]

Ken, come on, come here. Now Ken, you’ve watched the other workers.

You see that it can be done. Don’t understand why you got 11 though. Clearly to see that you got 11 the most that anybody got, so I’m afraid I have to put you on probation. This company pays for performance, so you’re on probation.

We’re expecting your performance to improve. You’ve been trained, and you’ve seen your co-workers. So take your place. You’re on probation.

[laughter]

Male Speaker 2: We’d like to announce that management has an aide for the work force.

We realize that we have not been doing our part in trying to improve production, even though we have provided an excellent quality program and the appropriate slogans.

[laughter]

We did not provide you with a goal or an objective. You don’t know what it is you’re supposed to produce other then white beads.

So we have come up with an objective for you. That objective is three red beads per worker, per shift. We’re confident now that you understand the objective. The goal is, of management that you’ll be able to meet this objective. Remember, your jobs are contingent upon your performance.

Indeed the company…the continuation of the company is contingent upon your performance so please do your best to meet this goal.

Male Speaker 1: I’m very pleased. We now understand the goal is three or less red beads per worker.

We were keeping all these numbers, but we didn’t have a goal. Very important to have a goal. So the goal is three or less.

Visualize three, three, [laughter] very good. So we are now set in prime for our second day of work. Now with our fine experience and our goal of three, we should do great things today. Willing worker number one, come on forward, follow your procedure. Did we get out of order here?

Male Speaker 3: Can I ask any questions at this point?

Male Speaker 1: What kind of question do you have?

[pause]

I guess you don’t have a question…[laughter] so follow the procedure, and use the beads.

Male Speaker 3: The main thing was I couldn’t touch the beads?

Male Speaker 1: Right. You cannot. That’s why we have the paddle. Cannot touch the beads. Untouched by human hands. Cannot touch the beads. And you don’t need a pen, so put that away.

[laughter]

Male Speaker 3: Can I use a pen?

Male Speaker 1: There’s no need for a pen. There’s no pen in the procedure. Just go forward. You’ve been trained. We have the procedure. Yep, go forward.

No, you follow the procedure. There’s an extra copy right here.

[laughter]

And keep up our productivity. You’re delaying here.

Cover the holes and a 47 degree tilt, see? It works. No talking.

[laughter]

That keeps the productivity down. Stockholders just get paid.

Male Speaker 2: Ten, dismissed.

Male Speaker 1: Ten. You see Curt? All that questioning, your performance got worse.

[laughter]

Don’t ask questions. Willing worker number two, Marty. Ten yesterday. Let’s see here.

I’m expecting some fine improvement here. Just rotate it through up four inches, 47 degrees and on to QA. Following the procedure just beautifully.

Male Speaker 2: Seven, dismissed.

Male Speaker 1: Ah, our best performance yet. Yes, seven. Very good. Very good. You did three better that’s right. Seven. Okay, now comes Ed.

You’ve seen that it can be done. You can see that improvement but he still didn’t get three. Remember three. Three. Three red beads or less.

And a 47 degree tilt and on to QA. QA does count. Very important to have this independent count. It assures our quality count.

Male Speaker 2: Thirteen, dismissed.

Male Speaker 1: Thirteen. I don’t understand. Ed you were trouble from day one.

[laughter]

Now put the beads back in.

You were trouble from day one. Okay, Debbie with nine beads yesterday. Now just rotate it nice, and smoothly through.

If you just follow it along, all the beads will cover. You still let go…the other way.

Debbie: Oh dear.

[laughter]

Male Speaker 1: You are fired.

Female Speaker: You can’t fire me now! I quit!

Male Speaker 1: Boy, a hazard like that. You can’t quit.

[laughter]

Now we actually had somebody quit back at Savannah River, and we since written a procedure that says nobody quits.

Now I understand Tom Sheltnicks is in the audience and he was recommended to me as a replacement worker.

[applause]

Scratch off Debbie. Debbie no longer exists. We don’t acknowledge your existence now. And it is now Tom. But spell it for me please.

Tom: T-O-M.

Male Speaker 1: T-O-M. No H, just T-O-M. Now Tom, you’ve seen the on the job training, right?

Come on forward, it’s your turn, because of the failure of your predecessor. Here’s a copy of the procedure. And you understand the goal of three. Make sure the paddle is empty. There you go, very good, first time at it, I understand.

Ah this is very good, and up and rotate to 47 degrees. Oh, such a smooth operation onwards to QA.

[laughter]

Male Speaker 2: Seven, dismissed.

Male Speaker 1: Seven. I made a good choice here, did I not? Did you see my choice there, Mr. President?

Male Speaker 4: Well done.

[laughter]

Male Speaker 1: Ken, willing worker number five my probationary worker. Now you just saw was a brand new worker could do.

You too can be replaced.

[laughter]

Four inches and 47 degrees forward, and over to QA.

Male Speaker 2: Ten, dismissed.

Male Speaker 1: Ah, see, probationary programs work. We’re getting improvement albeit slow. I’m pleased, eleven to ten. Okay that’s good. Now where is Sid? My worker of the day from yesterday.

Up, and oh, that’s such a professional work there…

Male Speaker 2: Nine, dismissed.

Male Speaker 1: Well, you reward a person and it just goes to their head.

[laughter]

Okay. QA you can assist here…give me a total of the six people for day number and we can fill out our daily report.

Now I should state that we do performance appraisals here, and I suppose I didn’t tell you.

At the end of the third day, we do your performance appraisal, and it’s a completely fair method. See, we’re logging your performance.

Now what is the total for today please…17, 30, 37, 47, 56. Yeah, 56 right, 56.

Gee! Well we’re nothing if not consistent. Mr President, at the end of day number two, we made 56 defective products, 56 red beads.

Male Speaker 4: Well I acknowledge your consistency, but consistent poor performance it not really what we’re after.

[laughter]

Our customer is dissatisfied. Our management team is dissatisfied. I see that no worker has made three red beads. No worker has met our objective.

Clearly, management needs to provide some additional guidance.

And true to management form, we have come up with another program that we would like to implement. And I will have you explain this to the workers, but I think they may be familiar with it already. It is the star program.

Stop, think, act, and review. Would you please instruct the workers and explain to them how this will improve their performance?

Male Speaker 1: This is a very fine program. Because we just don’t believe you’re concentrating enough. You’ve got to concentrate and keep track of what is going on here. Just engage your brain and reach. One thing that’s motivational is reach on to your tippy toes.

Come on, everybody reach. Think about that. Reach.

[laughter]

My problem worker doesn’t reach… [laughter]

But stop, think, act, review. This will help you concentrate. Before you come up you stop, you think about your procedure, you act. And QA will review your performance. What could be easier?

This will help focus your attention. And remember the goal of three. And speaking of the goal of three…

Male Speaker 2: Speaking of the goal of three…

Male Speaker 1: Who gets to put the money for it?

Male Speaker 2: I got 10.

Male Speaker 1: I got the 20.

Male Speaker 2: All right, well…here, I’ll back half of it.

Male Speaker 1: So we believe in paid for performance at the White Bead Corporation. This is more than yesterday’s bonus in fact…we have a $30 bonus.

Kind of works well with three. The first worker to get the goal of three or less gets $30. Which we’ll put right here.

[recording ends abruptly]

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Red Bead Experiment: Part 1

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:41:11 +0000

The Red Bead Experiment is a metaphor for problems, where the red beads represent “bad” and white represent “good”. It is a teaching tool mostly used in manufacturing or instruction in quality management. The Red Bead Experiment was created by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the person who influenced Toyota who, later, would develop The Toyota Production System.

This post explains how to play the Red Bead Experiment, the Lessons Learned from the Red Bead Experiment, and how to facilitate the Red Bead Experiment. This post also contains a video tutorial of the Red Bead Experiment. This is Part 1 of 6 of the Red Bead Experiment.

How To Play The Red Bead Experiment

The Red Bead Experiment consist of a large bowl with white beads and red beads and a paddle. Each player draws the paddle full of beads. Here are the specific rules for the game:

Objective: Produce white beads and avoid producing red beads (defects).
Instructor: Plays the role of the manager.
Quality Manager: This person counts the number of red beads after each draw.
Controller: This person records the number of red beads as relayed by the Quality Manager.
Workers: Have as many workers as you desire, but aim to keep the game to ~40 minutes.
Rounds: Try to have several rounds, where a round is defined as each worker has had a turn to scoop the paddle into the bowl of beads. In each round, as the manager, play the following roles:
- Round 1: Manager sets target for no more than 5 red beads. If violated, worker will have to work 2 hours overtime without pay.
- Round 2: Manager introduces a bonus program where the worker that produces below 5 red beads will receive a $500.00 bonus.
- Round 3: Manager is mean – yells, belittles, threatens, compares workers to each other, and has a big temper.
Why the Rounds: The rounds are meant to show the futility of such management approaches of bonuses, threats, and other incentives. No matter what the motivational approach, producing fewer than 5 red beads is futile.

Red Bead Experiment – Data Analysis

After several rounds, the Controller should have a table that looks like the following:

The bottom row shows the average of red beads per worker per day.

The instructor can then use this data set to introduce the class to statistical process control, variation, common cause variation, special cause variation, and upper limits and lower limits.

Red Bead Experiment Video Tutorial

Below is a video tutorial of the Red Bead Experiment. This video is Part 1 of 6.

Now, onto lessons-learned.

Red Bead Experiment – Lessons Learned

All variation comes from the process.
There was no evidence than any worker was better than the other.
The workers were doing their best, yet they were not improving – could not improve.
Intimidation, bullying, did not help the workers improve.
Monetary incentives did not help the workers improve.
All processes have natural variation.

Video Transcript

Narrator: This is Dr. Deming’s red bead experiment. We use it at Hanford to illustrate the five core functions of ISMS, especially feedback. We use volunteers from the audience to produce white beads for the white bead corporation using many modern management techniques such as numerical targets. The number three comes up several times during this exercise. We have monetary incentives and accountability and tabulated reports made to the president of the company.

We also demonstrate some statistics. Many tools get abused and used during this exercise. We hope you find this video useful as a safety meeting topic, or perhaps as “train the trainer” video for those who would like to lead their red bead experiment. We hope you find this experience entertaining but also educational.

Steve: Good morning. I’m Steve Prevette, your foreman. I’d like to welcome all you prospective employees as employees of the White Bead Production Corporation. We do have a new contract at Hanford to produce white beads for the Department of Energy, and as part of your orientation I would like to introduce the president of the company, Mr. Steven Byers.

Steven: Welcome, candidates. We look forward to completing our screening process and selecting a number of workers. As the foreman has mentioned, we do have a new contract. It calls for increased production. We need new workers.

We have used our HR department to screen the candidates and we are confident that we now have a pool of above-average workers only, which is very important of course. With that, I would like to have the foreman select the final candidates, and let’s get started with the production.

Steve: Yes, you all were given pink slips as you entered this room, or some of you were given pink slips at least, the lucky ones. Our job postings are as follows: We need six willing workers. They must be willing to put forth best efforts. Continuity of your job is dependent on your performance, your performance alone.

Educational requirements are minimal and experience in pouring is not necessary. Now there should be six people out there with “Willing Worker” number one, two, three, four, five, and six badges there. Ah, one very excited willing worker there! Come on forth! There’s got to be five other excited, willing workers, so come on down. Line up right along here. One, two, three, four, five, and six.

Oh, we have three not-so-willing workers out there some place. Come on! You’re not making good first impression upon your management. Come on, come on down. Okay, I think we have our six workers. Line up in order, one through six. That’s part of the screening process here, can you count to six?

Of course, the people who really need to count are our keyway inspectors. We have two keyway inspector sheets out there. They must be able to distinguish red from white and be able to count to 20. These people only have to count to six. Experience is not necessary, so my two keyway inspectors, come on forward. Come on up here. Two keyway inspectors.

Steven: You’re a little short on workers.

Steve: I am? Where’d my sixth worker go? I saw six people up. Okay, but inspectors cannot mingle with the workers. Inspectors come over here. These are the two inspector chairs. Now, I do have a sixth willing worker out there. One, two, three, four, five¦ Number three! Who’s got willing worker number three? Okay, I hear Tom [inaudible 00:03:40] is out there. Oh, no, we found our three.

Willing worker number three, take your spot in the third place there. We’re back on track here. Very good. Now we have our keyway department come forward. We kept them separate from the workers because this is very important, and we don’t want the workers to talk either, because that decreases productivity. I will point out our Increase Productivity poster,and if you spend your time talking you are decreasing productivity.

Now I should have an inspector general out there. Inspector general should have the same qualifications as the inspectors, but must have a loud voice, because you talk. Now you come forth and stand behind your two inspectors. You should make sure that they are very ethical people because the quality of our product depends upon our keyway department. I need an accurate count of the beads that we produce, and of course to record that count, there should be a recorder out there. Somebody should have a pink slip that says “recorder.”

Will the recorder please come forward and sit next to the view graph machine here? Ah, very good. Very qualified looking recorder. I’m sure you are good in addition and division, and you must be sharp. Sit right there. Here is your writing utensil, and here is payroll because next thing we must do is record our payroll. We are going to have the willing workers state their first name and spell it, and then I will repeat it to you and you will record it on the sheet. Willing worker number one, your first name?

Curt: Curt, C-U-R-T.

Steve: Say that again?

Curt: Curt, C-U-R-T.

Steve: C-U-R-T. Yes, now you may write it. Willing worker number two?

Marty: Marty, M-A-R-T-Y.

Steve: M-A-R-T-Y. Now my trouble worker here, number three.

Ed: My name is Ed, E-D.

Steve: E-D. Don’t get ahead of me. Now, procedure compliance is very important here, you understand. Don’t get ahead of me. Worker number four?

Debbie: I’m Debbie, D-E-B-B-I-E.

Steve: D-E-B-B¦ Sure it’s not Y?

Debbie: It’s I-E.

Steve: I-E, okay. Willing worker number five?

Ken: Ken, K-E-N.

Steve: K-E-N. And number six?

Sid: Sid, S-I-D.

Steve: S-I-D. Like those simple names. Very good. Very, very good. Okay, we have our payroll. Now of course a very important thing is your on-the-job training. We have a QA program here. We have our Be A Quality Worker poster. I have already pointed out our productivity program. We have a performance incentive to increase productivity. You all understand this? Increase productivity. And of course we have Take Pride in Your Work and Do It Right the First Time.

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Red Bead Experiment Instructions

admin — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:09:22 +0000

This post shows some basic instructions on how to conduct the Red Bead Experiment or Red Bead Game.

The Red Bead Experiment can be conducted with a Lightning Calculator Sampling Bowl or Sampling Box. While Dr. Deming used 80% white beads and 20% red, you will find this experiment done with 80% white and 20% colored. The colored beads add another dimension to the demonstration. This will be become self evident as the script is read.

This is a clever demonstration of the futility of most management systems for improving quality. Dr. Deming often refers to it as a stupid experiment that you’ll never forget. The experiment is described in a form similar to Dr. Deming’s presentation in his seminars. As will be described at the end, it can also be adopted for very small groups and even a one on one presentation.

The experiment starts with a sampling device that has 80% white and 20% colored beads, normally red beads, hence the name “red bead experiment”. The fact that the some sampling devices have various colored beads instead of all red is of no consequence, the experiment works just as well. It is necessary however to have 20% colored beads to go along with the text of this demonstration. If different colored beads are used instead of all red, then the colors can represent different kinds of defects. (This will become clearer as the demonstration is described.)

The objective of the bead factory in the demonstration is to make white beads. The customer will not accept anything but white beads, all colored beads are defective. The colored beads themselves represent defects in an organization’s business processes. They represent a faulty machine or tool, a bad engineering design, a defective part, a procedural flaw, an unreasonable change request, … all the things that can and do go wrong with a process. Supervisors and management control the number of red bead in the processes that are given to the workers. Now. let’s proceed assuming that management has developed and purchased the white bead process for the workers of this experiment.

The Red Bead Experiment

The instructor should take on the role of the department foreman or department supervisor and first of all selects his work team. Realizing that one of the objectives of this demonstration is to point out management prejudices, the instructor can use whatever slogans or phrases he believes fit his particular audience. It many start like the following.

Foreman: Okay I need eight bodies. (Pointing to people he wants to select) Can you count? Okay you’re hired . Can you push buttons? Okay you’re hired. You don’t have to think, you just have to do what I tell you. You’ll be on an apprenticeship for a while and if you work out we’ll hire you. We believe in high quality. We need good people.

So the process goes until all nine people are selected. The roles they will perform are as follows:

Foreman (the instructor)
Worker 1 – Bob (assuming fictitious names for this description)
Worker 2 – Dorothy
Worker 3 – Henry
Worker 4 – Calvin
Worker 5 – Carol
Worker 6 – Judy
Inspector 1 – Ron
Inspector 2 – Marty
Chief Inspector – Darwin

What will happen is that each worker will take turns drawing a sample of 50 from the sampling device. If you are using a sampling bowl then use the 50 hole paddle. If you are using a sampling box then designate the 50 hole pattern that you will use. This can be done verbally, mark on the face of the box with a water based transparency marker, or mask off the excess holes with masking tape, etc. Once a sample is drawn, then it will be checked by both inspectors (this high quality company has 200% inspection) who will independently write down the number of colored beads they count and show it to the chief inspector. The chief inspector will compare the counts, record the information on a data sheet and a graph, and then announce the number of colored beads drawn in the sample. The data sheet will show the names of the six workers and how many colored beads they each draw for the four days of the experiment. The data sheet will look like the sample data shown in figure 1. The graph will have six plot points for each day for four days.

After the samples are counted, the beads are returned to the sampling device and another sample is drawn (shaking the box or mixing the bowl adds to the demonstration). Obviously the percent defective is a constant 20% but the actual percentage will vary with each sample due to sampling error and this is where the spoof begins. While there are some lessons in statistics than can be taught from this experiment, the real punch line is in the way the instructor conducts the demonstration and allows people to see themselves and the futility of management practices for improving quality. Each instructor has to know is audience and how far he can push his points without turning them off.

As the experiment is carried out over the four days the instructor uses the results of the samples to make his points. Realizing that the data will most likely vary between 1 and 19 (determined from the control chart calculations for UCL and LCL for a process that is 20% defective and sample sizes of 50). There are a variety of points that can be made. The exact order that the instructor will make the points will be dependent on the actual data developed in the experiment. However, after 24 samples you will have enough high and low readings along with increasing and decreasing trends to make all the points.

Clear Instructions

The first point of the demonstration has to do with giving clear instructions. Management often believes that if they make the objectives clear then the problems will go away. It could go something like the following:

Foreman: Bob you know that our job is to make white beads, the customer will not accept colored beads. You make white beads by first of making sure that the material is well mixed. If it is not mixed well you will have trouble making white beads. (Demonstrate how you want the box shaked or the beads mixed in the bowl) You then turn the box over and hold it completely flat while you push this button on the end and white beads will fall into the holes. (If you are using a sampling bowl then the describe how the paddle is to be used to draw a sample.) Place the paddle into the bowl at the end, scoop deep into the beads and raise the paddle slowly at an angle of precisely 30 degrees and let the extra beads roll off the paddle. Now I’ve described the job for all you very clearly. I’m sure that all of you can now make white beads. Bob, would you please make our first batch of white beads.

Bob draws the first sample and shows it to the inspectors who record the count and they show it to the chief inspector. He then announces that we have 14 red beads. If colored beads are used then let red beads be red defects, green be green defects, yellow be yellow defects, etc.

Still have the chief inspector count and record the total number of colored beads, but have him also report the different number for each color. The instructor can then use this to attach more blame to the worker, i.e. “Yellow defects, you know they are the worst kind and most costly to repair,” and so on.

Foreman: Bob I’ve told you that the customer will only accept white beads, colored beads are not acceptable. Did you mix the material and hold the box completely flat like I told you? (Did you hold the sampling paddle at precisely 30 degrees?)

Bob: Yes I did

Foreman: Well you must not have been paying attention. Dorothy can you please make us a batch of white beads? Remember all that I’ve told you. (repeat the appropriate instructions again).
Dorothy draws a sample and it comes out to be 12 colored beads.
Foreman: Well Dorothy that is better than Bob, but you must not have been paying attention either. Let me repeat the instructions once again. (repeat the appropriate instructions) Henry will you please run this process. Remember that the customer will only accept white beads.

Red Bead Experiment: Intimidation

Henry then draws a sample and it comes out to be 15.

Foreman: Henry I need to talk to you. Didn’t you hear me when I gave all these people instructions on how to make white beads? What were you doing at the time, dreaming of some date you were going to have with Judy? I thought you said you wanted a job. We bring you here, give you clear instructions, show you how to make white beads and you still don’t do it. What’s the matter with you? Now I’m telling you people, you all better start paying attention or I’ll have to fire all of you. Calvin it’s your turn.

Red Bead Experiment: Praise and Comparison

Calvin draws a sample and it comes out at 8 colored beads.
Foreman: Now that’s much better. Calvin you are catching on. Calvin got the same instructions as the rest of you and he is now beginning to master the process. He was almost twice as good as Henry. We are going in the right direction now. Henry, you especially need to watch Calvin and see how he did it. In fact, the rest of you should all watch Calvin and see how he does it. Carol, it is your turn.

Red Bead Experiment: Banners and Slogans

Carol draws a sample and it turns out to be 10.

Foreman: Carol, I told you to watch Calvin. He knows how to do it. Now all of you listen up. We have firm quality standards at this factory. Didn’t you read the quality first banner over the door of the factory? See that poster on the wall over there, it says “Satisfied customers are happy customers and that means they will buy more.” Quality is critical to our survival as a company and you know what that means for all our jobs. This company has to get the silver star quality award. It is crucial to our success in the market place. Judy please show us how it’s done.

Judy draws and sample and it come out to be 6. The foreman then walks over and talks to the chief inspector.

Foreman: Darwin, here is a prime example of quality improvement. You see once I pointed out to everyone that we are really serious about quality at this factory, people started to improve. Judy ran the best batch of white beads that we’ve seen so far. I think that we need to put a poster by everyone’s machine instead of just a few on the wall that we have.

You know if we buy some of those quality first buttons we all could wear one and give one to every employee that improves. I’m sure that we can drive the point home more about quality. While today wasn’t the best I’m sure we’ll do better tomorrow. (while walking over to Judy) Judy, excellent job. Keep up the good work.

Red Bead Experiment: Incentives

Tomorrow comes and the foreman asks Bob to run his batch of white beads. Bob runs his sample and it comes out at 10.
Foreman: Bob you’ve done better than you did yesterday but we are still going in the wrong direction. I’ve talked this matter over with our management and we are going to institute a quality bonus for everyone who runs good parts. If you guys and gals will all do better we will have a big pizza party and bonus for everyone.

After the bonus scheme is in place Dorothy draws 5, Henry draws 6, and Calvin draws 8 colored beads. The foreman then talks to the audience as if they were the management. He is explaining the value of the bonus scheme.

Foreman: Well after we instituted the bonus scheme that I recommended things got better immediately. While things have been going up and down we are still much better than we were yesterday. I think that our people are finally getting the message and all our efforts with the new quality banners and quality first buttons are paying off. We are definitely on the road to zero defects. I think that we should design another button with a big zero in the middle that is surrounded by gold stars that we can present to our best employees. In fact I would like for one of you to speak at our employee meeting and tell them about this exciting new zero defects button program.

Red Bead Experiment: Blame

Carol and Judy then each draw 11 colored beads. The foreman is very upset that things are going bad after he has told management that things were improving. He then goes over to the chief inspector and discusses the problem with him.
Foreman: Darwin, I’m really upset. These people don’t care. Here you give them a good job and show that it is possible to improve and what do they do, ignore you and make life easy for themselves. I know that our incentive scheme was working, look at the results. I think Carol and Judy are spending too much time talking to one another and not paying attention to their job. I think that I’ll warn both of them about their performance and tell them if I catch them talking again that I’ll have to discipline them.

Red Bead Experiment: Performance Appraisals

This process continues again and again until all 24 samples have been taken. The data is then summarized for display and the supervisor then rates everyone’s performance. The data is then placed on an overhead projector or summarized on a chart pad.

Foreman: Bob, you started off bad and then improved slightly. You have got to do better. Dorothy, you started off bad, then you improved, then you fell off the wagon again, and then improved again. You need to pay closer attention to your work and gain more consistency. Henry, you started off terrible and then you finally caught on. You have the same problem as Dorothy, you need more consistency. Calvin, your the best employee in the department, but you still have room for improvement. You could be the first employee to earn the zero defects button that the manager talked about at the employee meeting. Carol, your performance needs to improve. Your overall rating was good. You can do better if you stop all that talking with Judy I warned you about. Judy, you need to pay attention to your work. You started off good and something must have distracted you. I think it was all the talking with Carol.

The foreman should now take on the role of explaining the results to management as he turns to the audience. The focus can now be on the graph and the noting of the various trends. The same praise and blame is offered for the trends. An evaluation of the trends for each day and an overall comparison of each of the workers may be appropriate at this point, as you try to present the results with the best possible explanation. The supervisor would then promise that they can do better and explain all the new quality programs that are in place to address the problems, i.e. posters, etc. He would make special note that he had warned the Judy and Carol and gave them unfavorable performance evaluations.

What this means is that given a 20% defective process, and with sample sizes of 50, that the number of colored beads will vary over 99% of the time between 1 and 17 just due to random chance. In the demonstration we knew that it was random chance because we controlled the experiment by virtue of a constant number of beads. In actuality, we have what Dr. Deming calls a “stable process,” or a system that is varying only because of random chance. This random chance is also referred to as only being affected by “chance or common causes.” Note that a stable process may still turn out faulty items.

Lessons Learned form the Red Bead Experiment

All the variation come from the process. There was no evidence that any worker was better than another.
The workers could, under no circumstances, do any better. The best people doing their best does not matter. Therefore, as managers, we must not rush to blame employees. We must improve our processes and make them so robust that it produces acceptable products no matter who runs it. So, when a problem with a process occurs, we must first investigate what went wrong with the process. If we find the process to be in order, we can then begin to determine if there was an operator error.
Pay for performance can be futile. The performance of the workers was governed by the process.
Inspection after the process is complete does not improve quality but merely catch defects before they leave the plant. The quality inspectors in the red bead experiment were not adding value to the process. They are there just to make sure defective product did not reach the customer. Since no inspection process is perfect, we can assume that even with 2 quality inspectors, some defective product still made it to the customer. As managers, we must instill quality efforts at all stages of the process so that defects can be caught as soon as they are made rather than discovering them after we have performed more valued added activities to them. The beads may have been defective when we received them from our supplier, but with end-of-the-line inspection, we will not discover them until we have wasted a lot of time and effort working on them.
Clear instructions to workers will only increase the probability that the process will behave as intended. Clear instructions will not improve a process that is out of control (a process that has wild variation from day to day).
Intimidation creates fear which does nothing to improve a process.
Praise will encourage a person to perform the process as they have learned to perform it. It will not improve a process.
Banners and Slogans raise the awareness of quality as an issue to be concerned with, but also tells people that management believes that a reminder a required to produce a quality produce, thus creating an environment of mistrust.
Incentives will not improve a process and have a short effect on employee moral.
The process has natural variation. Each day the process will produce data different from the day before within a natural range of values. We must collect data about the process to understand the range and variance of the variation.
To satisfy the customer consistently, the process must be capable of meeting customer requirements. If the customer’s requirements are tighter than we can produce on a consistent basis, then we will only produce acceptable products by accident.

While there are a number of options for discussing the results of the experiment, the instructor can discuss the following points independently or use the Deming’s 14 points slide in the appendix as a guideline.
Using the 14 point slide as a reference, add the following comments for each respective point:

Dr. Deming’s Fourteen Points (Only 10 for this post)

Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service. The red bead experiment is a process. The only way to actually improve the process was to change the number of red, or colored beads, in the container. While the process the data varied showing good and bad trends, the foreman was deceived into thinking his actions were impacting the process when in fact only random variation was taking place. The focus of improvement has to be on changing business processes, not blaming people.
Adopt the new philosophy. Management controls the number of red beads in a process initially since they design the products, purchase the machines or facilities, and establish the operating procedures. Once a system is in installed, management has to find a way to reduce the number of red beads if they want to improve the process. The problem is, that in most cases management does not know where the red beads are, but the workers do. It is only through a joint effort between management and workers that processes can be improved.
Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. While two inspectors counted the number of red beads, you can note how often the count may have differed. Point out the non-value added role of the inspectors in actually changing the process.
Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production, and service. The number of red beads in this experiment causing the level of variation was totally controlled by management. The workers were totally helpless in affecting the number of red beads that were drawn. In real life however there usually are some things that the workers can do to create improvement. But according to Dr. Deming common or chance causes are controlled my management (usually 85% of the problem), and local faults or special causes (15%) are controlled by workers. Hence the major responsibility for process improvement (85%) lies with management changing the systems.
Institute training on the job. Point out how a simple understanding of p-chart statistics would have helped the foreman recognize that the process was really a stable process and that the variation he was experiencing was really normal and expected. While the foreman gave clear instructions of what was expected to the workers on the first day, this alone did not create quality. Management clearly telling workers what they want does not mean that workers can achieve it.
Drive out fear. If management really wants to learn where the red beads are in a process so they can remove them, they must be willing to listen and stop blaming workers for poor results. Did the intimidation or comparisons of the workers have any real affect on the outcome of the red bead experiment? Management thought so at the time, but in reality the results were still caused by random variation.
Eliminate slogan, exhortations, and targets for the workforce. In the same way that intimidation and comparisons between workers did not impact the outcome of the red bead experiment, neither did the slogans, buttons, or incentive schemes. The understanding and focus has to be on the process and it’s capabilities.
Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship. Eliminate the annual rating or merit system. How do you think the workers felt about their performance appraisals? Do you think that it motivated them to do better? Has anyone ever had a performance appraisal where the comments were similar to same mumbo jumbo and cliches that were fed to the workers in this experiment?
Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. If management does not actually solicit employee input on solving business processes they are passing up a golden opportunity for improvement. Everyone at all levels of the organization has to be focused on quality improvement.
In summary, this demonstration can be a lot of fun while still making a number of dramatic points. The use of participants keeps people involved and active. If you get involved and act out the roles, the class will do likewise. The more the instructor customizes the experiment to the class the better it will be received. Use phrases that are common to the work place. Finally, the power of the experiment is only limited to the creativity of the instructor.

Adaptations of the Red Bead Experiment

Small Audiences – The previous description was designed for classroom use. There may be situations were it would be advantageous to perform the experiment on a smaller scale and more quickly. To abbreviate the experiment assume that the conversations take place between the foreman and one employee. Explain the requirements and then let the employee begin sampling. As data will of course immediately show red beads, the various management solutions can be stated to the employee. Cover the following issues between each sample like intimidation, unfair comparisons, praise, banners and slogans, providing incentives, and blame. Record the results of each sample and then give the person a performance appraisal at the end. Discuss how the employee felt as you were explaining to him all the management solutions for improvement.

Use of a Customer – Instead of having two inspectors and a chief inspector let one person review the bead sample who will be the customer. Pre-arrange with the customer to act like an irate customer when he gets different colored beads, etc.

Rework Department – If you are using a sampling bowl and would like to make a point about the cost and inconvenience of rework pick another worker to be a rework operator. Give them a bottle of white out correction fluid and tell them to paint some of the red beads white. Note that this can be messy and you need to also have a bottle of correction fluid solvent and a rag available for clean up of the operator and the beads when you are finished. Letting them work on three to four beads will be sufficient. Make the point about how poor a job they have done in rework. Show the production workers all the problems they have caused. Let the inspectors or customer comment on the quality of the rework job.
Bead Box versus Sampling Bowl – While both devices can be used for demonstration purposes each has its own advantages. The bead box is of course totally self contained and is easily transported. Students can handle and play with the box as it is passed around. The Sampling Bowl on the other hand is very visual and works well with large audiences. It provides flexibility in determining the colors and percentages as well as sample sizes, etc. As previously mentioned, different colored beads can be used to represent different types of defects and problems

Deming: The Fourteen Obligations of Top Management

Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and services.
Adopt the new philosophy.
Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.
End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone. Instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier.
Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production, and service.
Institute training on the job.
Adopt and institute leadership.
Drive out fear.
Breakdown barriers between staff areas.
Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force.
Eliminate numerical quotas for the work force and numerical goals for management.
Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship. Eliminate the annual rating or merit system.
Institute a vigorous program of education and self improvement for everyone.
Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.

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