Dear all,

this is a very interesting discussion, especially in these days with the
financial crisis and a huge battle for design budgets in many companies.
Somehow design managers feel the need to prove, more than ever, that
design brings value. There have been made many attempts to measure
design effectiveness and efficiency. Many of the current attempts focus
on short-term results by only defining CSF's and KPI's for the next
quarterly meeting with the boss, others try to prove the effect of
design in the limits of one design project (e.g. measure perceived
quality in craftmanship clinics or identify the design  effect in brand
equity). Ironically many neglect (conscious or unconscious) the
importance of setting up a quality management program, as they are to
busy in proving their results. I totally agree, that Deming work is
beneficial for many design managers. I am only wondering how pragmatic
this theories can be applied in practice. Looking at product design,
design management and architecture consultancies: If it comes to quality
management, they approach quality most often from the basis of ISO 9001,
which is much more generic than TQM. Many consultancies tried and failed
in applying TQM to their business in the 1980s. I am only aware of one
consultancy successfully applying TQM theories (driven by gurus such as
Deming, Juran and Crosby), which is Anderson Brule Architects. In
European companies I haven't seen  a company managing their design
process with TQM neither. Let me know, if you are aware of one. Terry, I
agree with your  comment,

"...that Deming's statistical control approach is probably essential to improving the quality of outputs of Design management and design activity."

However, I have tried to find applications of Deming's Statistical
Quality Control approach on design in literature, but could not find any
that really focuses on design and design management. If anyone has some
sources on this topic, it would be great to know.

best regards,
Florian