Juran applied the Japanese philosophy on quality into Western management practices emphasizing the role of human resources and control. New quality programs should comprise a quality plan which offers a structured, disciplined approach to quality and incorporates a number of tools and techniques. Particular emphasis is given to the collection and analysis of information and to employee training. It is culturally based with involvement as a core philosophy (Foster, 2006). Following Joseph M. Juran, the focus should be on the quality of the end. Quality does not happen in originations or production, it should be carefully planed and controlled. For every company, this is a crucial element of quality programs determining the product and service they will deliver. This approach means a move from a traditional ‘control’ type approach which accepts, implicitly, that defects will occur. Joseph M. Juran proposes the tools of control including the Bell system of sampling, the Shewhart control charts and inspection plans (Foster, 2006, Juran 1989).
In order to maintain quality, a company should take into account the following factors:
- Identify who are the customers;
- Determine the needs of customers;
- Translate those needs into language
- Develop a product that can respond to those needs.
- Optimize the product features;
- Develop a process that is able to produce the product.
- Optimize the process;
- Prove that the process can produce the product under operating conditions;
- Transfer the process to operations (Beckford, 2002).
Juran singles out ‘elephant-sized’ and ‘bite-sized’ projects. He states that the best way to deal with the ‘elephant-sized’ projects is to divide them up into ‘bite-sized’ units. Juran suggests that its is important for a company to ‘cut-up the elephant’ (Juran1989). Juran supposes that 80 % of an organization’s quality problems are caused by management-controllable defects. In order to improve this, the organization should put the systems right. The human dimension (training, education, cultural diversity management) proposed by Juran helps to motivate and inspire employees. Juran’s human approach help to create continuous motivation to achieve quality improvements, supported by appropriate education and training. Place emphasis on education will affect attitudes and motivation to achieving quality improvements. Also, Juran identified such threats as resistance to change and cultural resistance as important areas of concern (Arogyaswamy and Simmons 1993).
Quality assurance approach proposed by Juran can help business organizations, educational institutions and government agencies to deal with large projects and improve quality of all operations. Juran underlines that change is based on a series of small projects. In this case, it is important for a company to plan change carefully, process by process. It is more simple and effective to deal with small changes than make large-scale changes. For business organizations, implementation needs not be an expensive process (Foster, 2006). They should be carefully planed and introduced in small units. Spending money by itself does not produce quality, although when it is carefully targeted it helps. Most quality problems are traceable back to management decisions. He believed that poor quality is usually the result of poor management. Support improvements with adequate resources to ensure that they are achieved within appropriate timescales. Recognize the need to built quality into the product/service at the specification stage. The implementation of change can be approached, therefore, in terms of a choice of strategies relating to modifications of the task and careful planning of quality and quality assurance.
References
Arogyaswamy, B., Simmons, R.P. (1993). Value-Directed Management: Organizations, Customers, and Quality. Quorum Books.
Beckford, J. (2002). Quality. Routledge.
Foster, S. T. (2006). Managing Quality: Integrating the Supply Chain. Prentice Hall; 3 edition.
Juran, J M (1989) Juran on Leadership for Quality, Macmillan, New York.