Certified Production & Operations Manager (POM) Practice Exam 2025 – Your All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

The philosophy that states an employee cannot produce products exceeding the quality of their process capabilities aligns with W. Edwards Deming's principles, particularly his focus on the importance of understanding and managing variations within processes. Deming emphasized that quality must be built into the processes used to create products, and that employees are often limited by the capabilities of those processes. He advocated for continuous improvement and systemic thinking, highlighting that if a process has inherent variability or limitations, the output quality will reflect those constraints.

Deming also introduced the concept of "The System of Profound Knowledge," which encompasses understanding processes, variation, and the importance of a supportive management system that fosters quality improvement. This perspective encourages organizations to focus on improving the underlying processes, which in turn empowers employees to produce higher-quality products. In contrast to the philosophies espoused by Crosby or Juran, which also value quality but focus more on quality management principles or cost of quality, Deming's approach is deeply rooted in process capability and the systemic nature of quality.