Chapter 7
Systems Thinking
A system must have an aim. Without an aim, there is no system. A system must be managed. The secret is cooperation between components toward the aim of the organization.
—W. Edwards Deming
No problem can ever be solved with the consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew.
—Albert Einstein
A Primer on Systems Thinking
What Is a System?
W. Edwards Deming, the guru of total quality management, defines a system as “a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish a common aim.”1 A pile of sand is technically not a system since the removal of a single component (i.e., a grain of sand) does not change the functioning of the collectivity (i.e., the ...
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