Dr Joseph Juran
Dr Joseph Juran, widely considered to be the 'father' of quality management, has died at the age of 103. He leaves his wife Sadie after 81 years of marriage. Right up until his death Dr Juran maintained a busy life, caring for his wife, writing a book and serving as chairman emeritus for the Juran Institute.
Born in Romania but raised in Minnesota in extreme poverty, he said in an interview shortly before his death: 'I had a difficult childhood. I was a loner, a troubled youngster and a misfit, socially. I took refuge by building a world of my own; a world of books. As a youngster, one of my chief goals was to get rid of poverty.'
Displaying aptitudes for physics, mathematics and chess, he graduated from university with an engineering degree and later worked under Dr Shewhart, creator of statistical quality control, at Western Electric.
Juran created the rule of the vital few, an interpretation of the Pareto (or 80-20) principle in 1937, which helped managers to identify which business activities were the 'vital few' and which the 'useful many'. He also progressively championed top management involvement as early as 1945, writing: 'In the absence of sincere manifestation of interest at the top, little will happen below.'
In 1951 he wrote the first standard reference book for quality management, the Quality Control Handbook which is now into its sixth edition. Later, in 1964, he wrote the seminal Managerial Breakthrough, a step-by-step sequence for breakthrough improvement that later grew into the lean and six sigma programmes of today.
During this time, with friend and fellow quality guru, W Edwards Deming, he lectured extensively in Japan helping the country to kickstart an underdeveloped economy and industrial infrastructure. Their influence and guidance allowed the Japanese steel, shipbuilding, motorcycle and automotive industries to overtake those in the West.
It was only in the 1970s that the western world sat up and took notice of his work. During this time Juran, with his great grand son-in-law, Howland Blackiston, formed the Juran Institute, which through the 1980s and 1990s helped develop the total quality management and six sigma movements.
Joseph De Feo, Juran Institute's CEO, and 20-year employee, commented: 'Dr Juran recently told me that he wanted everyone to know he had a wonderful life and hoped that his contributions to improving the quality of our society will be remembered.'
Prior to his centenary, Juran said: 'What I want to do has no end since I am on the endless frontier of a branch of knowledge. I can go on as long as the years are granted to me'. He did.
