What about PDCA?
It is interesting to see “City University” students attacking a farm management scenario. Armed with Deming’s points, these students’ present good suggestions, but I would expect better results with more emphasis on the main issue, “turf disputes” in upper management. Instead of “pep talks” (see Deming point #10 about exhortation) the first priority should be real, focused problem-solving sessions involving all of those hard-shelled turf guardians. The CEO (who should also be trained in Quality) should be leading this.
Consider the Japanese (who showed the real value of Deming’s points). They will scrutinize detailed data, use the established tools to identify and attack the real problems, plan and implement improvements, monitor results, and perhaps most important, ‘institutionalize’ the improvements. In the U.S. we also should promote discipline to prevent backsliding.
In 30 years of industry experience, I have seen a lot of “pep talks” and newsletters, but none had the value of honest, data-supported, sweaty, dirty, Plan-Do-Check-Act. (Perhaps I missed that in this analysis?)