Joseph M. Juran

Joseph M Juran was a quality luminary who focused on top management involvement, the quality trilogy, quality cost measurement, and Pareto analysis. A management consultant and an American engineer, widely considered to be one of the fathers of the Quality movement.

Joseph M Juran’s Biography

Joseph Juran always excelled in mathematics, and it was clearly his forte. He was also a chess champion and graduated from Minneapolis, south high school. He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota and then went on work at Hawthorne Works. Initially, he worked as a trouble-shooter at the Complaints Department of Hawthorne Works.

Early Years

When in 1925, Bell labs proposed the idea of using statistical sampling and also the latest control chart techniques, Juran was one of those who were chosen to join the Inspection Statistical Department of the firm. They primarily worked on statistical quality control of all the innovations happening at Hawthorne Works. This paved the way for a more interesting career in Juran’s life.

In 1928, Joseph M. Juran was promoted to department chief, and then he became division chief. It was then that he published his technical article in the field of mechanical engineering in 1935. With the Great Depression taking place simultaneously, he realized his calling in the field of law. It was in 1931 when he enrolled in Loyola University Chicago School of Law. He was also admitted in 1935 to the Illinois Bar, despite never really practicing law.

By 1937 he had become the chief of Industrial Engineering. One of his many tasks was maintaining the methods by which the company maintained quality management with other companies they did business with.

Later Years

Joseph M. Juran took a leave of absence during the war (WWII) to be an assistant administrator for the Lend-Lease Administration. While performing this task, he and his team improved efficiency, eliminated excessive paperwork, and improved the arrival of supplies to our overseas allies. This lasted for a period of four years, and afterward, Dr. Juran decided not to return to Western Electric.

While working as the Chairman of the Department of Administrative Engineering at New York University, he started his own consulting company. He was soon consulting in forty different countries for many different companies. He was also writing books and lecturing as he was managing all this.

Founding of the Juran Institute

After a period of many years of giving seminars in Japan, Dr. Juran founded the Juran Institute. It began with a series of video programs that promoted his ideas and made them easily available to many more people. The institute started in 1979 and became very successful.

Juran served at the Lend-Lease Administration and Foreign Economic Administration during World War II. He later resigned from the government job so that he could work as a management consultant, at least on a freelance basis. Juran later joined the department of industrial engineering at New York University. That was where he ran seminars for the students – mostly round table conferences directed towards the executives.

He also worked as a management consultant for a variety of firms like the Hamilton Watch Company, Borg Wagner, and many others. That was when he decided to start his individual practice as a management consultant and went on to build a comfortable living for himself. He retired in the late 1990s when he quit his job as a management consultant.

Juran’s Quotes

One of his most popular quotes was:

“It is most important that top management be quality-minded. In the absence of sincere manifestation of interest at the top, little will happen below.”

Juran was also the ASQ’s eighth honorary member and showed a huge amount of interest in everything pertaining to consulting, so much so that he went on to work at it until he finally retired. It was in 1945 when the quality control societies decided to form these regional organizations that delved into the interests of the national quality groups. During this phase, he decided to pursue the second phase of his career. Once he made this decision, his career sky-rocketed, and he began on a path that would lead him to win 30 awards from several organizations.

Joseph M. Juran’s Quality Trilogy

Juran’s trilogy speaks about the cost of poor quality and also about cross-functional management. He showed how the costs incurred could be reduced by quality control and quality improvement.

1. Quality Planning

1. Identify the customers.
2. Determine the needs of those customers.
3. Translate those needs into our language.
4. Develop a product that can respond to those needs.
5. Optimize the product features so as to meet customer needs.

2. Quality Improvement

1. Develop a process that can produce the product.
2. Optimize the process.

3. Quality Control

1. Prove that the process can produce the product under operating conditions with minimal inspection.
2. Transfer the process to operations.

Joseph M. Juran and the Pareto Principle

One of Dr. Juran’s early discoveries was the Pareto Principle. Basically, it states that there is an 80/20% rule in all things. In other words, in quality control, you have to understand that the majority (80%) of your results will come from a minority (20%) of the project’s input. Try looking at it like this:

• 20% of all hiccups make up 80% of all mistakes. Focus on the little things!
• 20% of workers make up 80% of all results. Reward that 20% of your employees!
• 20% of all customers contribute 80% of all revenue. Satisfy all your customers!

The thought behind this is when you spend additional time managing the minutia end of the business, you may be wasting time on the details. This is known as diminishing marginal benefit. The purpose of the Pareto Principle is to realize that everything in life is not given out equally. You need to know that you should really focus on the 20% that is producing the finished product of whatever you are working on. For example, if you are given a specific period of time to complete a project, why not put 20% of your time into creating a detailed plan on how to get it done and then the other 80% of your time actually doing it? Try it and see how it goes for you. Remember, the Pareto Principle is not a law of nature; it’s only an observation.

Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Joseph Juran Questions:

Question: According to Juran, when a major quality improvement project is launched, which of the following describes the desired change in performance level? (Taken from ASQ sample Black Belt exam.)

(A) Six Sigma
(B) Continuous
(C) Breakthrough
(D) Sporadic

Answer:

C: We go with the most encompassing answer here.