Can you please explain the meaning of this story below and give some comment on it?

Take Time to Understand the Figures "If you can improve sales, productivity of quality by 5 percent without a rational plan, then why didn't you do it already?... "If you are in a state of statistical con- trol, the action you take on the appearance of a defect will cause more trouble. We need to improve the process by reduction of variation. Bill Scherkenbach stated one gets powerful leverage by going upstream in the study of the process." As managers we learn that numbers are factual, flawless, and final. Now we are hearing that we must study the variation in numbers. What does this mean? When we study numbers, we are looking at dif ferences between last month and this month, last quarter and this quarter, last year and this year. We also look at differ- ences between Joe and John, Sue and Carol. Dr. Deming is suggesting that we don't really take the time and energy to understand the meaning of the figures we deal with. We don't have the knowledge to see variation, and then discover sources of variation. He seems to suggest that only shrough knowledge of the sources of varia- tion can we truly make improvements. Change made without this knowledge is ust tampering. I am reading Scott Peck's book, The Road Less Traveled. In this book he describes himself as unable to make sim ple home repairs until he was 35 years old. He had always felt incompetent in this area. One day, his neighbor was repairing a lawn mower. Peck told his neighbor that he was unable to make such repairs. The handyman from next door explained: "Sure you can, if you only take the time." Peck pondered this theory. Soon came the test of the theory. The emergency brake in a patient's car stuck. He crawled under the dash. With his old self image he would have taken a cursory look and thrown up his hands in helplessness. Instead, he took the time to examine the wires, hoses, and cables. Slowly and thoughtfully he could trace the brake release, and find the stuck lever. The touch of a single finger released the brake. Peck confirmed his theory. By taking time one can do things that in the past seemed impossible. We need to take time to trace and understand the sources of variation in our data. There is no instant pudding. To see the less-visible numbers we must take time. To understand the invisible num- bers we must take time into account. I have heard American managers com- plain in their dealings with Japanese firms, that the Japanese take too long to decide what to do. (Yet once the Japanese make a decision, then they move ahead with higher sales and better products.) We in America are quick to implement a plan and content to work out the details by making adjustments in the field. As Tom Peters said, "Ready, Fire, Aim." Although we save time in planning, we pay a much higher price through lower customer satisfaction. Now I understand the expression: "Why is there never time to do it right the first time, but always time to do it over