Knowledge from Experience. Wisdom from Juran.

Dr J M Juran

There are many definitions of Quality. I have found Dr J M Juran’s definition of Quality absolutely profound: Fitness for Use.

At first, in 1987, this definition was simply a jingle. As my Facilitators’ Workshops on Juran on Quality Improvement started rolling out, I learned the depth of this definition by listening to my participants.

Dr Juran also believed in effective communication. His secret:

• Demystification, and
• Economy of Words.

He also believed that the above is possible if we have a rock solid understanding of the Fundamentals of Quality Management. That can happen by reflecting over and over again on basic concepts.

Quality Capsules

Thirty-three years later, I wrote my first Quality Capsule on 7 July, 2020. The soul of the Quality Capsule was “demystification”. It was given character, as an Edu-Blog, the next day. Since then, I have added a Quality Capsule every Wednesday to my Edu-Blog.

The series of Quality Capsules, to date, have focused on:

• QC 1-4 Basics of Quality Management
• QC 5-18 Structured Quality Improvement
• QC 19-30 World-Class Quality.

Last week I posted my 30^th Quality Capsule….a Quality Fable…Customer First, Always. The Lessons Learned in the fable were:

• Leaders walk their talk
• Strategic goals should be simple and clearly articulated
• Customer focus is no longer a choice
• Measurement is required in order to control and improve
• Get commitment of your people first. Behaviour will change thereafter, and hopefully attitude
• A robust process can be simple, but must follow Plan-Do-Check-Act.

Borrowing from these lessons, my next series of Quality Capsules, for the Edu-Blog, will focus on Leadership for Quality.

I look forward to meeting you on Wednesday, 10 February, 2021.