The man behind the synthesis of the term ‘quality’ in management, Dr Joseph M Juran, was paid rich tributes by IMC’s Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Award (RBNQA) Trust recently, by commemorating his birth centenary year. The tribute proved truly fitting as some of the country’s leading industrial houses gathered in Mumbai to show how much they have gained from Dr Juran’s trilogy: quality control, quality planning and quality improvement.
Dr J J Irani, Director, Tata Sons Limited, gave away a trophy to Dr Juran in recognition of his distinguished work, which was collected by Linda C Cheatham, Director, Public Affairs, The American Center, on behalf of him.
As a part of these celebrations, the IMC RBNQA felicitated Suresh Lulla, MD, Qimpro Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Chairman, RBNQA, for his unstinted efforts in popularising and adopting Juran’s time and tested quality trilogy in India.
The seminar was attended by the likes of Niraj Bajaj, Director, Bajaj Group; Chandra Mohan, VC & MD (Retd.), Punjab Tractors Limited; G M K Raju, CEO-Printing & Packaging, ITC Limited; V C Bedi, VP, Larsen & Toubro, Hazira; Jehangir Ardeshir, CEO, Tata Quality Management Services; F C Kohli, Former Deputy Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services, and Balaji Reddie, Founder, The Deming Forum.
Each or these company representatives gave a detailed presentation that conveyed in more ways than one how Japan had transformed itself into one of the most developed nations under Dr Juran’s guidance. G M K Raju, in his presentation, eulogised the cost-effectiveness or the Juran Quality Improvement (JQI) projects, which helped the company save as much as Rs 6-7 crore in one quarter. Also in another project aimed at Improving the life and quality of tools, the company could save almost Rs 60 lakh in one quarter, by adopting Dr Juran’s methodologies. A welcome change was also noticed in the company when it launched six international brands, and the cost of poor quality (COPQ) trends reduced. The company also won ten worldstar awards in packaging and three in exports, and also experienced a noticeable improvement in market standing. The methodologies adopted were education and training of managers, job rotation, CBTs, e-learning, etc.
V C Bedi from Hazira, highlighted how the heavy engineering division of his organisation gained by leaps and bounds from Juran methodologies. The cost of poor quality (COPQ) projects by the JQI teams earned them Rs 14 crore. Also a marked improvement was seen in team spirit, export growth and employee spirit. The company also registered a substantial growth in exports, reaching a whopping 53 per cent from a measly figure of five to ten per cent. Also the company was awarded the DNV certification of Level 7 ( + ), a feat achieved by very few companies in the world.
F C Kohli, former Deputy Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services, recalled the days when the company benefited from Dr Juran and Dr Deming’s ideas. He reiterated that quality is not a cost but is an attribute, it is an altitude and not an overhead.
The seminar included a 50 minute documentary titled ‘Immigrant's Gift’ on Dr Juran’s life which was more awe-inspiring than the tale of his success. His life epitomises the rags-to-riches stories. Born in Romania in 1904 in a shoemaker’s family, Juran was one among six children. Poor job prospects forced his father to go to Minneapolis, US, to seek a job. Meanwhile, Juran’s young mind at the age of five, showed great adroitness in mathematical equations and qualitative reasoning.
Juran’s father Jacob called the whole family over to Minneapolis and this changed their lives forever. Life wasn’t easy for the family, which had to live in a tarpaper shack. Jacob had to take up a job as a labourer in the shoe making company, as machines had taken over men in the US. The kids were constantly bullied at school for being Jewish.
At school Joseph Juran displayed acute excellence in chess competitions. The knowledge of this game increased his sharpness in assessing quality. His brother Nathan Juran said, “We used to play chess when we slept in the same bed, Joe and I after the lights were out. Everything was dark, and we’d play chess just by visualising the board. But after maybe six or eight moves, I’d be lost. But Joe knew exactly where every piece was. So he always won”.
In 1920, Juran joined the University of Minnesota and later on graduated to join the Western Electric Company in the inspection branch. Perfection and hard work earned him the manager’s post. Throughout his career his ideology was to keep the quality right and stop worrying.
During the second World War, he was called to help the army in stockkeeping. After the war, Juran realised that his knowledge in quality management can benefit the entire human race and not just America. He released the Quality Control Handbook, which gave a standard reference work on quality.
According to the biography adapted from the script for the PBS documentary video, ‘Immigrant’s Gift: The Life of Quality Pioneer Joseph M Juran’, written by John Butman and Jane Roessner, Juran’s most outstanding work was published in 1964, titled Managerial Breakthrough, which gave a detailed theory of quality management, comprising quality control and quality improvement.
In 1979, he founded the Juran Institute to create new tools and techniques for promulgating his ideas. The first was Juran on quality improvement, a pioneering series of video training programmes. The Quality Trilogy, published in 1936, identified a third aspect to quality management - quality planning. In addition to these accomplishments, there is Juran’s seminal role as a teacher and lecturer, both at New York University and at the American Management Association. He also worked as a consultant for businesses and organisations in forty countries, and has made many contributions to literature in the form of more than twenty books and hundreds of published papers (translated into a total of seventeen languages) as well as dozens of video training programmes.
In 1987, Juran was invited to Japan to restructure its economy, and there the quality revolution pioneered by him reached its zenith. Japanese products were then considered very inferior and low on quality. But under the guidance of Dr Juran, the senior executives of all the leading companies in Japan were taught an unforgettable lesson on the importance of quality. Technology in Japan underwent a sea change, and the result is what we see today, the Japanese-miracle. Be it the Japanese toys, the electronic goods or the hi-tech gadgets, everything displays a deep-rooted commitment to quality.
Dr Juran’s methodologies skyrocketed to fame with Japan’s miraculous recovery. Earlier American executives were indifferent to his thoughts but this came as a jolt to them. Today, his trilogy is the Bible of quality management for leading corporate houses throughout the world.
Peter F Drucker, author and well-known management gum, said, “(Juran) more than anyone else, has fathered and nurtured modem quality management. Whatever advances American manufacturing has made in the last 30-40 years, we owe to Joseph Juran and to his untiring, steady, patient, self-effacing work”
Dr Juran is now evolving environment management techniques at the Juran Institute. “We are leaving behind quality dikes. Environment is threatened. Planet has become inhabitable, people who create technology must protect the world from its consequences” he said in the documentary.
Reflecting upon Dr Juran’s life reminds one of the quote by the American author and philosopher Margaret Fuller, “If you have the knowledge, let others light their candles at it”. Dr Juran's life has been like the candle, which lights many more such candles.
CREDITS: Preethi Nair Thevar, Assignments Abroad Times, Mumbai