Joseph Juran biography

Joseph Juran (December 24, 1904 – February 28, 2008) management consultant. He was born in Brăila, Romania. But here he lived a few years of his life because his family decided to emigrate to the United States, they settled in the state of Minnesota. Since Joseph Juran began his education, he showed great ability for mathematics and chess. After completing his school study he entered the University of Minnesota, and in 1924 he received the title of electrical engineer. Soon he got a job as a staff person in the problem-solving department of a subsidiary company at Western Electric.

He was in that company until he was seduced by an initiative that sought to apply new methods of statistical personnel management. Accepted and held an important position within the statistical oversight committee. From that work, Juran began to worry about the internal mechanisms of business management and administration. After a while, Juran was department head and was later promoted to division chief. When the economic and social phenomenon of the Great Depression broke out, Juran began law studies.

He graduated in 1935, that same year he published an article published by the Mechanical Engineering magazine on quality management. He continued with his work in the subsidiary company AT & T. During World War II, Joseph Juran held a position in the Foreign Economics Administration, at that time he was ruling Franklin Roosevelt. But after a long time, Juran decided to resign to take the road as an independent consultant. Although he did not stop working for companies like Gillette and General Foods; He was also a professor and lecturer at several universities, especially the University of New York where he addressed the issue of quality control.

Juran continued to work independently until the 1990s. Juran felt the need to translate his knowledge and research results in several series of articles and books. Its importance is such that it is considered one of the drivers of the quality revolution in Japan. Among its most studied concepts is the Pareto Principle, this is one of its concepts developed to talk about the area of ​​quality and productivity. In his book Management Breakthrough evokes the issue of quality management, he exposes his vision about the possibilities of quality management that could affect the income and productive levels of companies.

Juran believed that a reordering was necessary to generate a large-scale internal reorganization. It addressed the previous conceptions of quality, focused mainly on the finished product. In this sense, an important part of the quality was the workforce. Juran advocated the training and training of the main managers and managers of some productive areas. For this consultant, the formation of the high command of the companies was as important and necessary as that of the workers of the base.

Joseph Juran had the ability to recognize the main flaws in quality that had the most traditional American companies. In this sense, the main problems were resistance to change and bad human relations. This is one of his most important disclosures that complements everything discussed in his ideas of quality management. Juran manages three fundamental concepts: quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement.

It is necessary to deepen the contribution of Juran to the Revolution of quality in Japan. After the Second World War, the quality level of Japanese products was among the lowest in the world. But when the ideas of this man came to the leaders of Eastern companies and began to be implemented, an increase in productivity, administration and quality management was reported. After that moment a significant number of consortiums and business and planning chambers went to Juran’s postulates.

Approximately 20 years after its implementation in various industries, the highest level of quality was observed in a wide range of products worldwide. Clearly, the case of Japan is due to certain conditions: a higher pace in terms of quality improvement, the training of all hierarchical business levels, participation in the process of the most elementary workforce. From the above, we must affirm that Juran was an advocate of labor participation in the most important internal processes in order to guarantee and increase effective management and quality management in all stages of production.

After his death produced on February 28, 2008, at 103 years of age. They continue taking their lessons in the business areas and production, in increasing the level of quality of the final product. The Romanian based in North America has left an extensive bibliographic legacy that has served to continue the reflections about administrative and business management in the current productive dynamics of the world.