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Which quality guru contributed the most and why?

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I posed this question recently:

The Quality Gurus—Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Joseph Juran, Philip Crosby, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Dr. H. James Harrington, Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, Dr. Walter A. Shewhart, Shigeo Shingo, Frederick Taylor, and Dr. Genichi Taguchi—have made a significant impact on the world through their contributions to improving not only businesses, but all organizations including state and national governments, military organizations, educational institutions, healthcare organizations, and many other establishments and organizations.

However, which quality guru contributed the most and why?

via LinkedIn | Which quality guru contributed the most and why? | LinkedIn Answers.

Some of the best answers follows:

Anshuman Tiwari

Firstly, it is unfair to compare such luminaries. Especially by us who are so far away from being even close to their levels. But if I do have to pick One, and I think that was your intent, then it is Dr. Joseph Moses Juran (JMJ) without a doubt. If I had to pick two – Juran and Deming; three – Juran, Deming, and Shewhart.

Some research is required before we answer a question like this. Unless we are okay with allowing perception and hype to overtake our judgment. I have referred to biographies and published literature on Juran and Deming before commenting.

  • JMJ was the first Quality consultant – he created the industry.
  • JMJ concepts are fundamental to quality – Trilogy of planning, control, and improvement; Pareto analysis; Universal improvement cycle of diagnostic and remedial journey (Six Sigma was later an improvement on this)…long list.
  • JMJ highlighted the importance of quality improvement and management’s role in it well before other Gurus.
  • JMJ won the Japanese highest civil honor before other Guru’s – he has a temple in Japan in his name and was offered the naming of the Nippon prize in his name (This prize is for winners of Deming prize).
  • JMJ was also instrumental in setting up what is known as ASQ today.
  • JMJ’s books – Managerial Breakthrough; Quality, Planning, and Analysis; Quality by Design; Handbook – all are seminal works. Generations have benefitted from his work.
If another Guru has hogged more limelight it is only because JMJ was a mild mannered man, content in his service to humanity. He had turned down naming of the Japan prize in his name only because he would feel awkward.

No offence to Deming but his move to the so called ‘holistic quality’ was very late in life. He became popular only after a 1980 TV show erroneously presented him as the ‘sole’ architect of Japanese quality. An error the producers later regretted. Some research will tell us that Juran was invited by JUSE once they realized that Deming’s SQC needed to be complimented with improvement efforts. To give credit where it is due, it was Deming who suggested Juran’s name.

My apologies if I have sounded offending towards other Gurus. I am nobody to judge Gurus.

Matteo Naspetti

Padric O’Rouark

Interesting question and it sounds like you want a definitive answer. In the manufacturing world, the big man these days is Deming followed closely by Juran. But perhaps we are being a little myopic. Quality methods rely on standards or standardization.

If we go back a little further in time to the Sumerians in the Tigris/Euphrates valley (for example) they devised a calendar very similar to the one we use today. 5,000 years ago, the Sumerian farmer used a calendar that divided the year into 30-day months. Each day was divided into 12 hours and each hour into 30 minutes. The Egyptians were the first to develop the 365-day calendar and can be credited with logging 4236 BC as the first year in recorded history. But our latter day efficiency experts rely on the math, calendar, clocks and so forth that were invented centuries ago. True, they are more refined these days but the modern guru stands on the shoulders of giants (to rephrase)

The blocks in the pyramids are relatively speaking, similar in size. The Babylonians and the Assyrians built their temples and ziggurats with standardized clay fired bricks. Quality control is indirectly referred to in the Bible Exodus with mud adobe brick (mud and straw which was a form of cheap hay strengthened composite materials). The ancient Romans built in concrete and demonstrated knowledge of materials standardization in the concrete-cement formulation used in their building projects.

Henry Ford and his team built the Model “A” using many of the same methods as Deming and others a long time before the latest monoliths of statistical process controls, repeatability and standardization of the modern world.

So I guess cannot really answer your question. But I can give you something to chew on. Gum anyone? (Grins)

Amit Sharma

I am personally a fan of Dr Deming (also a part of his DEN), however I cannot differentiate between the Gurus. In India we have gurus of every subject – you can have a favourite one but comparing them is supposed to be offensive. Each has his/her own area of expertise, theology, ideology, style, space etc.

Unfortunately, for e.g.: things like Taguchi arrays are not being used as widely as the Ishikawa Diagram due to n number of reasons – that does not bring down Dr Genichi’s contribution.

Comparing apples to apples is justified – NOT THIS!!!!!!

Shaun Sayers

For me it Deming for the following reasons

1. He adopts a holistic approach considering technical, economic and behavioral factors, almost with equal weighting
2. He uses accessible language. A good piece of work is only a good piece of work if it can be digested

My view anyhow

Rip Stauffer

I agree with everyone who says that this question is unanswerable. I have my favorites: Shewhart, the originator of SPC, operational definitions, and other seminal quality concepts; Taguchi, who redefined world-class quality in 1960 with his paper on loss functions; Taichi Ohno, who developed TPS…I don’t know whether any of these qualify as “Gurus,” though. When I think Guru I think Deming, Crosby, Juran…I think of the hundreds of people crowding in to hear Deming’s four-day Seminars back in the 80s and early 90s.

Paul Hollingworth

I agree totally with Rip’s answer.

If I had to choose one, it would be Dr Water Andrew Shewhart.

Without Shewhart there would be no concept of managing variability. His was the creative spark that ignited the fires that Deming, Juran and Homer Sarasohn lit in Japan.

Many of the ‘gurus’ mentioned (including Deming) although brilliant, basically synthesized new ideas by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Shewhart, Ohno and Taguchi are notable for the genius of their creative insight.

Puneet Jhawar

If one reads through the work of all these – they are generally a build up of work on the others. Quite frankly I think that Six Sigma is an excellent concept, perhaps one of the few quality control/ improvement processes which can be expanded from not only using it on shop-floors but also to the sales techniques… Then again, history suggests that the corporate world is always on the look out for new techniques – the latest fashion being 6S…

Selcuk Aytimur

For me, Taylor and Shewhart are the beginners…Then Deming and Juran are the beginners of the second wave after second war.

But there is no definitive answer to the question. Each of these contributed to the different sides of the whole; following each other, emphasizing on what they found is important. Deming was a man of statistical control while Juran focused on planning, Ishikawa focused on training and continuous improvement together with Masaki Imai (whose name not covered in the question)…

What do you think? Which guru contributed the most?

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