Thursday, March 20, 2008
Joseph M. Juran, a pioneer of quality management whose "Quality Control Handbook" revolutionized how companies around the world made and sold products, died Feb. 28 of a stroke at his home in Rye, N.Y. He was 103.
The "Quality Control Handbook" was first published in 1951, and at least five editions followed. The book describes the mathematical basis for quality improvements. A second book, "Managerial Breakthrough" (1964), gives a step-by-step process for improvement that led to the Six Sigma and lean manufacturing philosophies.
Mr. Juran believed that quality improvements were key to businesses' survival and profits not only for manufacturers, but for enterprises as diverse as scientific organizations, hospitals, supermarkets and Internet companies.
He, along with other management experts W. Edwards Deming, Philip Crosby and Armand V. Feigenbaum, led the way in making quality an essential force in business.
Mr. Juran created the Pareto principle, also known as the 80-20 rule and the law of the vital few, which states that 80 percent of effects derive from 20 percent of causes.
He worked as a quality control consultant, lecturer and author until he was in his 90s, his son Donald Juran said. "He always told me, 'Never be without a project,' and he never was," he said.
Mr. Juran attended the University of Minnesota and started his career in Chicago at Western Electric Co., the former manufacturing arm of AT&T, trying to resolve product defects, his son said.
During World War II, Mr. Juran worked in Washington, eliminating bottlenecks that hindered timely equipment shipments to U.S. allies overseas, and seeking to minimize defective exports.
After teaching industrial engineering briefly at New York University, he became a hired expert, helping companies develop quality control standards, his family said.
In 1979, he founded Juran Institute, an organization aimed at providing companies with research and advice on managing quality.
Survivors include his wife of 81 years, Sadie, and three sons, a daughter, nine grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
-- From News Services