Deming Prize is a annual industry award recognizing excellence in Manufacturing. Organized by Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), it covers the Global region. Established in 1951.
The Deming Prize is administered by the Deming Prize Committee of the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) and has been awarded annually since 1951, making it the world's longest-running major quality management award. Named for W. Edwards Deming, whose statistical quality control teaching shaped post-war Japanese industry, it examines how well an organization has implemented Total Quality Management suited to its own business: applicants define their own themes and objectives, and examiners assess whether goals match the situation, how well they are deployed, and their likely future effect, through a document examination followed by an on-site examination.
The family includes the Deming Prize itself, the Deming Grand Prize (formerly the Japan Quality Medal, open to organizations that have already won the Prize) and distinguished service awards for individuals. There is no quota — every applicant that clears the examination threshold receives the Prize — and each recipient also gets a detailed examination report with improvement recommendations, feedback many companies treat as consulting-grade. Open to overseas organizations since 1985 (Florida Power & Light became the first non-Japanese winner in 1989), it remains a defining credential for quality-driven manufacturers worldwide.
Applications are due by 20 February each year with the required documents and fees; on-site examinations follow for qualifying applicants, winners are decided and publicly announced in mid-October, and medals are presented at a mid-November ceremony. Examination fees apply and are published in JUSE's application materials rather than on the overview pages. This is a multi-year commitment rather than an entry form: credible candidates typically have several years of organization-wide TQM practice, documented policy deployment, and results they can defend under examiner questioning.