Juran’s Managerial Breakthrough coined Six Sigma by Motorola
Over the years, I’ve always maintained that Six Sigma finds its origins in ‘Managerial Breakthroughs’ by Dr JM Juran. Here is a selection of excerpts from European Quality. Volume 8. Number 3. that further prove my humble claims.
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On 6 May, 2001 Dr Joseph M Juran presented the American Society for Quality’s Juran Medal to its first recipient, Robert W Galvin. The medal was presented to Mr Galvin “in recognition of his continuing commitment to providing quality leadership for Motorola in the senior officership position from 1959 until early 1990, then as Chairman of the Executive Committee, and currently as full time officer”.
The relationship between these two men went back further. Over twenty years, Dr Juran personally trained then CEO Bob Galvin and his management team. Motorola was the first client of the Juran Institute, the training and consulting company that Dr Juran founded in 1979. In the 1980s, Motorola coined their quality journey “Six Sigma”. And the rest as they say is history.
Six Sigma lay relatively dormant from the public eye until a 1997 Business Week article which featured General Electric’s Jack Welch and his adoption of Six Sigma as a company-wide strategic initiative. That led to the exponential rise in the popularity of Six Sigma.
Perhaps not as well publicized, but equally impressive is the implementation of Six Sigma by the global giant Samsung Electronics, another client of Juran Institute.
Six Sigma is a financially-driven and data-driven set of methodologies for achieving near perfect performance to meet or exceed customer expectations. The standard that it aims for is no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Performance measures in cost, quality and/or time dimensions are improved via projects through the disciplined application of quality engineering, process management and statistical tools, armed with the power of today’s computing capabilities.
n his classic book, Managerial Breakthrough, first published in 1964 by McGraw-Hill, Dr Juran called such improvement “breakthrough improvement” to contrast it with “incremental improvement” in the 5 to 10 percent range. And referring to breakthrough improvement, he noted that “All improvement takes place project by project….and in no other way”. This project approach to improvement has proven itself over the past 40 years to be the most effective way. Why? Because projects are organized efforts on achieving specific, measureable objectives. Assigned by management, project resources – people, time, materials, budgets, training, reassignment of existing duties to free up key resources – become legitimate and accountable. It is this legitimacy and accountability by all parties concerned which makes improvement happen effectively and efficiently.
When implemented strategically, Six Sigma helps companies turn over working capital faster, reduce capital spending, make existing capacity available and new capacity unnecessary. Such outcomes foster a work environment that stimulates employee development, motivation, morale, and empowerment; increases promotions and raises compensation. Everyone wins.
