The Ideas of Dr. W. E. Deming and their Fate Yurij Adler¹, Vladimir Shper² ¹ Academician, Professor, dr. Moskow University of Steel and Alloys Russia, 119049 Moscow, 4 Leninsky prospekt E-mail:
[email protected]; Tel.:+7 985924 8374 ² Academician, Associated professor, dr. Moskow University of Steel and Alloys Russia, 119049 Moscow, 4 Leninsky prospekt E-mail:
[email protected]; Tel.:+79163189064 Abstract The life of William Edwards Deming (WED) who was born in 1900 and died in 1993 covers almost a whole century – the 20th century. He created a new look at how to build human relationships during production process (Deming, 1986, 1993). He found out how production data should be got and used. He realized the specific role of quality for continual improvement. He upgraded the W. Shewhart’s cycle of specification-production-inspection (Stewhard, 1986, p. 45) and turned it into the cycle of learning and improvement of whatever whoever wanted to improve (PDSA cycle). As a result he created a new theory of management. In fact he created the theory of future management – management of the 21st century. He had many disciples and supporters all over the world. His major achievement is the so-called “Japan’s Economic Miracle”. But though there is an institute of his name in the New York, USA, and there are many supporters of his ideas in different countries, and though his name is even included into the list of the most influential management gurus of the 20th century (Kennedy, 1998; Gabor, 2000), the success of his ideas turned out to be much less than it should be according to the expectations.