Joseph Moses Juran (1904–2008) was a Romanian-born American engineer and management consultant. An evangelist for quality and quality management, he wrote several influential books on those subjects.
Born in Brăila, Romania, Juran moved with his family to America to escape poverty and anti-Semitism. The family settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Juran got an electrical engineering degree from the University of Minnesota and joined Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works, got trained in the growing field of statistical quality control. He later obtained a law degree from Loyola University, although he never practiced law.
Juran’s productive career spanned over three-quarters of a century—first as a faculty of New York University and later as a management consultant. The first edition of Juran’s Quality Control Handbook (1951) inspired the budding Japanese quality movement. In 1954, he embarked on a lecture tour of Japan, where chief executives of large companies attended his lectures. (W. Edwards Deming inspired the use of statistical process control.)
Juran founded the Juran Institute in 1979, focusing on training and consulting services in quality management, lean manufacturing management, and business process management. He is known mainly for advocating the concepts of the Pareto principle and the Juran trilogy (quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement.)
Juran wrote hundreds of papers, speeches, and dozens of other books, including Quality Planning and Analysis (1970) and Planning for Quality (1988.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Joseph Juran
For many phenomena, 80% of consequences stem from 20% of the causes.
—Joseph Juran
Intrinsic is the belief that quality does not happen by accident, it must be planned!
—Joseph Juran
Every successful quality revolution has included the participation of upper management. We know of no exceptions.
—Joseph Juran
All improvement happens project by project and in no other way.
—Joseph Juran
A good rule in organizational analysis is that no meeting of the minds is really reached until we talk of specific actions or decisions.
—Joseph Juran
Goal setting has traditionally been based on past performance. This practice has tended to perpetuate the sins of the past.
—Joseph Juran
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.
—Joseph Juran
Quality planning consists of developing the products and processes required to meet customer’s needs.
—Joseph Juran
What I want to do has no end, since I am on the endless frontier of a branch of knowledge.
—Joseph Juran
Without a standard there is no logical basis for making a decision or taking action.
—Joseph Juran
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