Juran Trilogy

Dr Joseph M Juran developed the quality trilogy – quality planning, quality control and quality

improvement. Good quality management requires quality actions to be planned out, improved and

controlled. The process achieves control at one level of quality performance, then plans are made to improve the performance on a project by project basis, using tools and techniques such as Pareto analysis. This activity eventually achieves breakthrough to an improved level, which is again controlled, to prevent any deterioration.

Juran believed quality is associated with customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the product, and emphasised the necessity for ongoing quality improvement through a succession of small improvement projects carried out throughout the organisation. His ten steps to quality improvement are:

1.      Build awareness of the need and opportunity for improvement

2.      Set goals for improvement

3.      Organise to reach the goals

4.      Provide training

5.      Carry out projects to solve problems

6.      Report progress

7.      Give recognition

8.      Communicate results

9.      Keep score of improvements achieved

10.  Maintain momentum

He concentrated not just on the end customer, but on other external and internal customers. Each person along the chain, from product designer to final user, is a supplier and a customer. In addition, the person will be a process, carrying out some transformation or activity.