Point II: Adopting the New Philosophy

This so-called new philosophy advocated by Deming is central to the ethics of total quality management because it represents the new economic age of industrialization, which is irrelevant under the old philosophies. For example under these post-philosophical ideas, the long-term investment was considered a loss for management because only later successors would reap the benefits.

This is seemingly a ridiculous thought in the recent economical age because Deming practically claimed the opposite was true in order to reach the goal, which is essentially the same outcome. This new philosophy is nothing more than businesses taking the time to notice and prevent the further production of defective products or services, which in effect will lead to increase profits in the long-term.

As Deming summarizes under this point, defects are expensive, unnecessary, and not inevitable. He argues that they are a product of the system traceable to a cause or chain of events concluding in these defects. The most significant problem is the managerial career structures. Usually members of this level of the corporation are highly educated resulting in employees that are only planning to use this position as a short-term advancement to reach the one they would rather hold.

This creates a weak foundation for the lower levels since the next highest position does not attempt to find or correct problems. They do not try to change things because they may risk their chance of promotion if the problems worsen instead of improve.