3.4.2 Juran
Just after Deming, Juran taught quality principles to the Japanese in the 1950s. He was an engineer working with Western Electric and he developed statistical methods for quality control. His perception was that different levels of management speak different languages. For instance, top management speak the language of dollars, workers speak of "things", and middle management must be able to speak both about dollars and things. Therefore, senior management must understand quality costs and focus their attention on avoiding and reducing costs. For the workers, the focus has to be on removing defects and conforming to specifications. Juran followed the cycle of continuous improvement like Deming, promoting the use of statistical tools to focus on areas that need improvement. He focused his quality management philosophy on three main areas:
- quality planning (the design of the process)
- quality control (monitoring and controlling the process)
- quality improvement (continuous improvement to improve levels of performance).
Juran's experience in Japan confirmed his view that quality management leads to competitive advantage.
Activity 3.5
Visit the Juran Institute website at http://www.juran.com and explore Juran's philosophies and their implementation.
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