Joseph Juran biography and theory

Article by: Vincent van Vliet

Last update: May 25, 2023

Joseph Juran (Joseph M. Juran, 1904 – 2008) was an evangelist in the area of quality and quality management. Dr. Joseph Juran is also known for his further development of the Pareto Analysis of the founder Vilfredo Pareto in the area of quality management.

The biography of Joseph Juran

In 1924 Joseph Juran obtained his Bachelor’s degree (BSc.) in electrical engineering. Soon after he joined Bell Telephone Laboratories where he first gained experience in the area of quality and quality management. In 1935 Juran obtained a Master’s degree in Law (LL.M.) but he never practised law in his career.

Before the end of the Second World War, Juran started a new career as a freelance consultant and he combined this work with his post as an assistant professor at New York University. This combination led him to teach courses in quality management, give round table seminars with executives and run all kinds of projects at large clients such as Gillette, Hamilton Watch Company and Borg-Warner.

Japan was a country that drew Juran’s attention just after the Second World War. His first edition of the book Quality Control Handbook led to an invitation from the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) to come to Japan in 1951. When dr. Joseph Juran arrived in Japan, he got involved in many manufacturing companies and he lectured in quality management at Hakone, Waseda University, Osaka and Koyasan.

Whereas William Edwards Deming focused on statistical process control, Joseph Juran and Kaoru Ishikawa focused on quality management.

Juran set up training courses for middle and senior management. He met with resistance in the United States with respect to this training for senior management but Japanese managers embraced his ideas wholeheartedly. In practice, this had consequences for both Japan and the United States.

Twenty years after Joseph Juran’s arrival in Japan, his work started to pay off. The Japanese producers became leaders in the area of quality and in 1980 this sparked a crisis in the United States due to quality issues.

Joseph Juran was active as a consultant until the 1990s. He consulted for various American, Japanese and Western European organizations such as Philips, Xerox, Volkswagen, Toyota and many more.

Joseph was also the founder of the Juran Institute and the Juran Foundation. He died of a stroke at the age of 103.

Famous quotes

“Without a standard there is no logical basis for making a decision or taking action.”
“Goal setting has traditionally been based on past performance. This practice has tended to perpetuate the sins of the past.”
“All improvement happens project by project and in no other way.”
“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.”
“Quality planning consists of developing the products and processes required to meet customer’s needs.”
“What I want to do has no end, since I am on the endless frontier of a branch of knowledge.”

Books and publications by Joseph Juran et al.

2002. A call to action: the summit: Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota-Minneapolis. Journal: Measuring Business Excellence , vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 4-8, 2002.
2001, 1993, 1980. Quality Planning and Analysis: from product development through use. McGraw-Hill.
1999. The quality improvement process. McGraw Hill.
1999. How to think about Quality. Quality-Control Handbook. McGraw-Hill.
1999. Quality and costs. McGraw-Hill.
1995, 1964. Managerial breakthrough: The classic book on improving management performance. McGraw-Hill.
1995. A history of managing for quality. Irwin Professional Publishing.
1994. The upcoming century of quality. Quality Progress, 27(8), 29-37.
1993. Why Quality Initiatives fail. Journal: Journal of Business Strategy , vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 35-38.
1992. Juran on quality by design: the new steps for planning quality into goods and services. Simon and Schuster.
1992. Made in USA: a renaissance in quality. Harvard business review, 71(4), 42-7.
1991. Strategies for world-class quality. Quality Progress, 24(3), 81-85.
1989. Leadership for quality: An executive handbook. The Free Press.
1988. Juran on planning for quality. New York: Free Press.
1986. The quality trilogy. Quality Progress, 19(8), 19-24.
1986. Planning for quality. Juran Institute.
1986. Universal Approach to Managing for Quallity: The Quality Trilogy.
1981. Product quality: a prescription for the West. AMACOM.
1981. Upper management and quality. JM Juran.
1978. Japanese and western quality-contrast. Quality progress, 11(12), 10-18.
1975. The non-Pareto principle; mea culpa. Quality Progress, 8(5), 8-9.
1974. Basic concepts. Quality control handbook, 2-1.
1967. The QC circle phenomenon. Industrial Quality Control, 23(7), 25-34.
1962. Quality control handbook. In Quality control handbook. McGraw-Hill.
1962. New life for staff departments. Journal: Human Resource Management – HUM RESOUR MANAGE , vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 16-19, 1962.2003. Juran on leadership for quality. Simon and Schuster.

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Van Vliet, V. (2012). Joseph Juran. Retrieved [insert date] from Toolshero: https://www.toolshero.com/toolsheroes/joseph-juran/

Original publication date: 09/02/2012 | Last update: 05/25/2023

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Article by:

Vincent van Vliet

Vincent van Vliet is co-founder and responsible for the content and release management. Together with the team Vincent sets the strategy and manages the content planning, go-to-market, customer experience and corporate development aspects of the company.