W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993), American statistician whose postwar teaching in Japan laid the intellectual groundwork for TPS. Deming's 1950 lectures to Japanese executives through juse taught statistical process control, the PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act), and the management philosophy that quality is a system problem, not an individual problem. taiichi-ohno built on Deming's foundations: PDCA became the rhythm of kaizen, statistical thinking became the basis for understanding variation and quality, and Deming's insistence that management bears responsibility for the system was embedded in TPS's culture. The Deming Prize that Toyota won in 1965 was both a recognition of and a driver for TPS development. Ohno acknowledged Deming's influence but went far beyond Deming's methods — adding flow thinking, waste elimination, and pull production that Deming's statistical framework did not address. See tps-deming-connection for further analysis of this relationship.