THE RED BEAD EXPERIMENT The components of the red bead experiment include a box
ID: 406476 • Letter: T
Question
THE RED BEAD EXPERIMENT
The components of the red bead experiment include a box of 4,000 wooden beads (800 red and 3,200 white), a paddle with fifty bead size depressions, a second smaller box for mixing the beads, six willing workers, two inspectors who make independent counts, a chief inspector who verifies the counts, an accountant who records the counts and a customer who will not accept red beads. The job is to produce white beads and the standard for each worker is fifty white beads per day.
The daily production operation for each worker includes: 1) poring the beads from the first box into the second box and then back into the first box (to mix the beads), 2) dipping the paddle into the first box without shaking it, 3) carrying the loaded paddle to each inspector for separate counts and then verification, and 4) dumping the day's work back into the supply box. The six workers perform this operation four times to represent four days' work. The results of one of Deming's experiments appear in Table 1.
TABLE 1
RED BEADS RECORDED IN ONE OF DEMING'S RED BEAD EXPERIMENTS*
Worker Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Total Mean
Dick 14 10 9 10 43 10.75
Pat 17 5 8 5 35 8.75
Bob 11 6 5 9 31 7.75
Steve 8 8 9 6 31 7.75
Horst 12 11 12 8 43 10.75
Dave 9 11 7 10 37 9.25
Total 71 51 50 48 220
Mean 11.83 8.50 8.33 8.00 9.17 9.17
Table 1 reveals that each of the six workers performed differently with daily defects (red beads) ranging from five to 17 and four day averages ranging from 7.75 to 10.75.
QUESTIONS
Please address what you believe the point of the exercise to be in relation to Management Theories in general and specifically.
In addition, please choose a specific management theory that you are familiar with from your reading and explain in detail how an organization might practically apply it to get the desired outcome from their employees.
Finally, choose another management theory that you have not yet used in any of your responses and address whether you think it is still applicable in today's work environment. Be sure to address why or why not.
Explanation / Answer
Answer:
The Red Bead experiment emphasizes that little, if anything, can improve quality in a poorly-managed production system. In the experiment, managers control incoming material (white and red beads) and work procedures so rigidly that there is little room for change. It is their mistake that there is an input of red bead production material the workers cannot stop the red beads from coming. Management inspects the beads only after they (and the mistakes involved) have been made. No amount of encouragement, threats, or promises of rewards will improve quality production when it is inevitable, by the nature of the process, that red beads will be produced. Furthermore, the managers have mistakenly believed that the variables in the process are controllable, and therefore that the workers are simply not trying hard enough in their labors. The final point of the Red Bead experiment is that all factors of a process must be examined to locate and correct negative variations.
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