W. Edwards Deming

W. Edwards Deming (1900 to 1993) was an American statistician, engineer and management consultant. Trained first as an electrical engineer and then in mathematics and physics, with a doctorate from Yale University, he helped develop sampling techniques that the United States Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics still use. After the Second World War he taught statistical process control in Japan at the invitation of the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers, and his ideas on management and quality became hugely influential on Japanese industry. He later taught at New York University while working as an independent consultant in Washington, D.C. His books include Out of the Crisis and The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education. He championed the work of Walter Shewhart, including the cycle that evolved into Plan, Do, Study, Act, and he also composed music. In 1993 he founded the W. Edwards Deming Institute.