Dr. Joseph M. Juran

Ever since man came out of the caves he always has craved for greater achievements. His earlier days of his arrival into plains were consumed with the basic survival tactics but as he progressed over the ages and became civilized he started to realize that he needed what is that most important aspect of life – QUALITY. Once he realized he really took off and we are fortunate enough to live in that age of quality and more importantly awareness of the necessity of quality.

In this connection I am reminded of one great name Dr. Joseph M. Juran. Born in 1904, he is fondly called the ‘father’ of quality. Quality management till the early part of the 20^th century was mostly statistical. Dr. Juran added human dimension to it and since then the watchword Total Quality Management (TQM) was born. Dr. Juran is said to have taught the Japanese his principles of the TQM and we all know what Japanese became in the 1970s. They almost wrecked the American Automobile and electronics industry. Till date the Japanese are the strict followers of TQM thanks to Dr. Juran.

Dr. Juran innovated on many theories – for example is extension of the Pareto theory – formed by Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto the 19^th century Italian philosopher that 80-20 principle – that 80% of the problems are caused by 20% of the causes. Dr. Juran extended this saying the remaining 80% of the casues are also to be eliminated. Of course this now has turned into one more modern method of management called the Six Sigma.

Anyway to cut the long story short Dr. Joseph Juran passed away on 28.02.08. He was 103 years when he died. Not many live that age – perhaps his commitment to quality made him live that long!