Been awhile since I've heard Demmings name touted anywhere.
He and his "methods" were real big in this area in machine shops in the early 90's. That's when Boeing got on the quality improvement band wagon, and made all their suppliers comply with their requirements. ISO 9000 was all the rage. We had meetings, started quality improvement teams, watched films, met with their QA gurus. It was a mad house! Cost the company I was working for at the time thousands of $$! Now look where they(Boeing) are. Getting shoved aside by Airbus.
This country has been lazy for too long about quality. If we don't figure it out, we'll be left in the dust. I see the struggle up close and personal being in a manufacturing industry. We have a hard time competing. The shop I work at now was started and ran by a real "buy american" type guy. He bought only american made machines. He's gone now(retired), and we're buying foreign made machines so we can get good dependable equipment. The american made stuff is crap! Needs constant maintenance and replacement parts. Pretty sad.
And trying to keep our people on top of what they're making on the machines is a constant struggle. There's too many that don't much care. They come in, put in thier hours, and collect their check. Hard to find machinists that care, or have any real skills.