W. Edwards Deming’s “System of Profound Knowledge” explained with Formula One, including how this is aligned with the Japanese philosophy of Chowa.
In 1947 W. Edwards Deming came into contact with the Japanese culture, as he was asked by the US Department of Army to plan the latter Japanese Census. He always stayed connected with the country, what should be for the mutual benefit, as clearly the Japanese culture also influenced his theories and publications, including his famous “System of Profound Knowledge”. Here he connected the understanding and appreciation of a system together with the philosophical theory of knowledge and psychology. In opposite to the early ages of automation, Deming included the employee not only inside the system, he defined him/her as a key-part of it. A sign of respect for humanity itself. This philosophy is aligned with the Japanese Shinto-religion, which understands the human as part of nature and environment. Based on Shinto, the Japanese culture developed the idea of “chowa” (Japanese for “a spirit of harmonious partnership”). In a connected world each action leads to a counter-action and similar to the “butterfly-effect” has numerous consequences. To ensure sustainable and responsible growth, it is imperative to create win-win-situations between the directly involved partners, including to consider the benefit of other potential stakeholders, which do not have a voice or “seat the table”.
Despite this connection of philosophies, Deming’s ideas work also in Western cultures, including for the most individual employees, like for example race drivers.
In 1935 Tazio Nuvolari won, what later should get named the “impossible victory”. With an, at that time, technically inferior Alfa Romeo P3 he made the best race of his career and won against the complete competition on the world’s most difficult race-track, the more than 20km long Nürburgring, known as the “green hell”. This is an example that beside strong teams, sometimes one single person can make a difference. Still today, to win the championship it is not enough to have the best machine, you also need the best driver, who is able to unleash the full potential of the car.
A typical task for a manager of a racing team is to have on the one hand a perfect efficient team, and on the other hand to integrate the most talented drivers, who in many cases, not directly are team-players.
On the race-track the drivers are connected to their team and depend on its advice to decide when to attack, but also when to safe fuel or protect the tires. Nevertheless the driver stays dominant, as the information gets considered, but the decision is made on the individual’s experience and judgement of the situation. Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen became famous in 2012 for his answer to his Lotus Formula One box crew, as he received too many messages while driving: “Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing.”
But the situation changes for the mandatory pit-stops, and not only for the stop itself, already for the planning. The team includes experts using sophisticated algorithms to calculate the car’s actual performance, fuel reserves, tire degradation and many other factors. Not only for the own car, in addition the main competitors get observed to predict their strategies, including timing and number of pit stops. This to adapt the own strategy to the competitors and other external factors, like predicted rainfalls or safety car-phases due to an accident.
With turning into the pit lane, the individual star driver temporally loses the outstanding position and becomes an ordinary team-member. It is his / her task to steer the car with the required speed (maximum 80 km/h) exactly to the spot where the mechanics are already waiting. Formula One champion Juan Manuel Fangio went one step further: “The driver of a racing car is a component.” Even if arguable for the whole race, for the process of the pit stop, it brings the situation to the point.
There are three mechanics at each wheel, one to open and close the locks of the rims, one to take off the used tire and one to put on the new one. In addition to this, there is one mechanic at the back of the car to lift it up (due to Formula 1 regulations are no powered units allowed here) and two on the side of the car to safe-guard the process.
The team, including the driver, is practicing this process over and over again, so that each little step works in perfection and the different individuals work as one. The aim is to act as precisely as possible, so that each time the process can get executed exactly as practiced, because every small variation would lead to a longer standing time for car and driver. These numerous repeats in training are required so that the team-members know “blindly” each handle. The process gets as less cognitive as possible. Not only that there is no time for thinking, furthermore everyone in the race is full of adrenaline. This is required for humans to go to the limit inside the competition, but has the downside that the high level of stress may block the individual’s capability for logical thinking. Rigorous training-units simulate all predictable scenarios. Team members learn the “scripts” for each different situation, extended decision-making processes get avoided.
The results of the efforts are 2.09 seconds during pit stops. As it would be impossible for a human to control the fast-paced process, an electronic device observes the different steps. When it concludes that they had been all executed correctly, it gives the driver the sign to accelerate, leave the box and return on the race-track.
Most of the TV-cameras are on the two drivers, as they have an outstanding position inside the team. This is justified, as their individual talent is required and they take on the highest risks for the project. Nevertheless, more is required to win a championship, a holistic approach as it was defined by Deming, including the four pillars:
- Appreciation for a system
- Knowledge about variation
- Theory of Knowledge
- Psychology.
Long-term success requires to combine all individuals to let them work as one, but nevertheless to respect their abilities to stay motivated.
Sources:
ethics playground 
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