Design Flaws Quotes
He was specifically talking about defects in products, but he believed the principle was applicable to all errors and defects ranging from customer service mistakes to errors in legislative language. Deming and Douglas MacArthur are the only two Americans who the Japanese have honored with public statues. Deming taught the Japanese how to build quality control into their work processes and made them a major economic power.
The production of military equipment and supplies during WWII was little short of miraculous. The military procurement and contractor delivery was one of the major factors in our winning the war. However there were mistakes and one of the worst was the engines of the B-29 heavy bombers. Many American airmen died or were injured as a result of these defects. One of the worst was that to save weight so more bombs could be loaded, many of the parts of the B-29 engines were made of magnesium. The unanticipated consequence was that if the engines caught on fire, there was no way to put the fire out—in the air or on the ground. The magnesium was very flammable and burned at such a high temperature that there was no remedy for the fire which spread faster than fires in engines without magnesium. However, in the midst of the war, those planes had to fly with the risky engines. Fortunately the atom bomb was detonated ending the war and the B-29s could then be retrofitted.
