One need not be eminent in any part of profound knowledge in order to understand it and to apply it. The various segments of the system of profound knowledge cannot be separated. They interact with each other. For example knowledge about psychology is incomplete without knowledge of variation.

The ultimate purpose of collecting the data is to provide a basis for action or a recommendation.

He that expects to quantify in dollars the gains that will accrue to a company year by year for a program for improvement of quality expounded in [Out of the Crisis] will suffer delusion. He should know before he starts that he will be able to quantify only a trivial part of the gain.

Knowledge is theory. We should be thankful if action of management is based on theory. Knowledge has temporal spread. Information is not knowledge. The world is drowning in information but is slow in acquisition of knowledge. There is no substitute for knowledge.

It is a mistake to assume that if everybody does his job, it will be all right. The whole system may be in trouble.

To optimize the whole, we must sub-optimize the parts

Let us ask our suppliers to come and help us to solve our problems.