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700 Introduction to Safety Management
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Deming's 14 Points Applied to Safety

Point 2: Adopt a new philosophy. Management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership.

Deming - Part 1

Safety can never be understood or properly appreciated if management takes only the short-term view: it must focus on the long-term.

Only by focusing on the long-term benefits will management gain the vision to properly and consistently demonstrate real safety leadership.

The old philosophy accepts as fact that a certain level of error (injury and illness) will occur during production processes, and that the associated costs should represent one of many costs of doing business.

The new philosophy rejects that notion and strives to:

  • Improve process quality/safety by continually analyzing and improving upstream factors such as work practices, equipment design, materials, education, and recognition.
  • Improve product quality/safety for the benefit of the customer.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.

8-4. According to Deming, which of the following is a basic principle of the "new philosophy"?