Joseph Juran, along with
Deming and
Crosby was one of the most famous
Total Quality Management gurus. Born in
Romania in 1904, he moved to the
United States in 1912 and a few years later joined
Western Electric as it pioneered the development of statistical methods for
quality. He wrote, edited and published the majority of the
Quality Control Handbook. Like
Deming, Juran taught quality principles to the
Japanese in the 1950s which, in turn had a massive impact on contemporary Japanese quality systems.
When implementing the Juran philosophy, instead of proposing a major reorganization of processes within the organization, as did
Deming, Juran proposed programs that were designed to fit into a company's current strategic business planning with minimal risk, the usual top-down hierarchial management system Americans use. He claimed that
top management speaks in the language of dollars; workers speak in the language of things; and
middle management must be able to speak both languages and translate between dollars and things. In turn, Juran advocated the use of quality
cost accounting and
analysis (
top-management language); and increasing
conformance to specifications, supported extensively by
statistical tools for analysis (worker's language).
The Juran Philosophy
The Quality of a product is defined by Juran as its "fitness for use", by the consumer that is.
Quality is related to "(1) product performance that results in
customer satisfaction; (2) freedom from product deficiencies, which avoids customer dissatisfaction". The design of goods, the
manufacture process, delivery and service all relate to the fitness of use.
So, when it comes to producing quality, one must look at the firm as a whole and each department to achieve design and conformance quality respectively. Like
Deming, Juran supported an
endless cycle of activities that includes
market research,
product development,
design,
planning for manufacture,
purchasing,
production process control,
inspection and
testing, and
sales, followed by
customer feedback. The interdependency of these functions emphasizes the need for competent company wide
quality management.
Senior management must play an active and enthusiastic
leadership role in the
quality management process.
The Quality Trilogy:
1.
Quality planning: the process of preparing to meet quality goals
2.
Quality control: the process of meeting quality goals during operations
3.
Quality improvement: the process of breaking through to unprecedented levels of performance
Juran's noticed that most companies focused most of their efforts on quality control of the trilogy, but felt that more effort should go into
quality planning and, especially,
quality improvement.
Amongst the fundamental similarities of the Juran and
Deming philosophies, we have
management commitment, the need for
improvement, the use of
quality control techniques, and the importance of
training.