Introduction
Contemporary market is, no doubt, based on competition between different entities, which have to rely, in order to win the consumer, on innovation and self-improvement. ‘Global competition requires that our attitudes and values toward work be dynamic, engaging, and collaborative’ (Stamatis 1996). The mentioned improvement goal can be also described as the raise of quality, and the following three issues, which derive from ISO 9000, are thought to be necessary to consider, if such target has been set: ‘to establish important goals and objectives, formulate actions via policies, programs and procedures to achieve the goals, understand the source of resistance and neutralize them’ (Stamatis 1996). At the end of the former century certain attitudes (ways of thinking) have been formed so as to deal with these issues. Quality planning has become one of the central questions, being defined as ‘the process necessary for identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them’ (Kern 2014)
In this paper, we will take example of two gurus, pioneers in the field of quality management, namely W.E. Deming and J.M. Juran, especially by comparing and contrasting their concepts.
1) Deming and Juran: what are the differences and similarities between their quality philosophies?
Both prominent scholars laid the foundations of the new quality movement, namely Total Quality Control system, transforming into Total Quality Management, which has been spreading around the world, which was based on comprehensive approach to quality management (Mandal 2008). They both emphasized on the important role of the quality on the market, calling it ‘a driver for success in the market place, which should be applied in all the spheres of management’ (Mandal 2008).
Juran’s central figure as well as Deming’s was customer per se, meaning that ‘they are key factors for determining the quality goals’ (Mandal 2008 ). Deming, additionally, emphasized on the interrelationships between ‘consumer research, design (and redesign), suppliers, materials, production, assembly, inspection, distribution, and consumers’ (Landesberg 1999).
Deming’s assessment of the aims was high and the role of goals was, if not the most important, then among the central ones. That derives from his 14 Points for transformation of the American industry, among which were ‘create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, adopt new philosophy, cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality, institute training on the job as well as leadership and so on’ (Stamatis 1996).
In contrast, Juran highlighted that mere quality control without planning what need to be done and how, was not effective as well as meeting merely the quality goals, set before (Mandal 2008). According to Juran, proper quality management cannot be built on the once fixed goals, since if you want to win the market, you need to always innovate and implement changes, consequently set new goals (Deming, on the contrary, claimed that such model will lead to crisis), thus his Quality Trilogy included planning, control and improvement, when all of them relate to quality (Mandal 2008).
Such differences are caused perhaps by the ways, their worldview was created: one was a practitioner and the other one was theorist. ‘Deming was a philosopher who desired to provide a new way to view the world. Juran was a practitioner who desired to teach people better management practices (Landesberg 1999).
2) How do their contributions apply in practice?
Their roles in the field of quality management cannot be overestimated. They are described as ‘two of the century's most notable and respected contributors’ (Landesberg 1999). In particular, it is recognized that Juran’s quality improvement strategy has been applied by the Toyota Production System and Motorola’s Six Sigma (Kern 2014). Juran commented Sigma’s model in the following way: “It’s a basic version of quality improvementThat process goes back to 1926, when I was a young engineer at Western electricI am the inventor of that concept’ (Kern 2014).
Their work was widely accepted within the organizations across the Pacific, i.e. in Japan and the U.S., since it was the way how to satisfy the customer and his needs (Mandal 2008). The 14 Point of Deming influenced other management branches, particularly leadership, the important of which the author has defined; human resources management, which has obtained the concept to implement, namely the need for training of the employees; PM work, which has to be aimed at ‘breaking down barriers between departments, eliminating work standards, putting everybody in company together’ (Stamatis 1996).
In fact, both scientists have provided the management departments with working theories, namely PDSA of Deming and relating to management of quality functions of organization as ‘ collection of such activities as market research, product design, product development, production, inspection, and sales’ (Landesberg 1999)
3) What is your preferred quality philosophy and why?
Having clearly analyzed both concepts, I have concluded that my personal choice is not strict support of the one concept, since I prefer approaching to this issue complexly. From the point of view of a person willing to in future implement my knowledge and skills so as to raise the effectiveness and quality of certain organization and searching for, in general, pragmatic knowledge, I should adhere to the provisions of the Juran’s concept, since it, firstly, has already proven its effectiveness in practice (we have discussed the examples of Toyota and Motorola), secondly, it is, in fact, aimed at practical sphere of management.
Though, we cannot ignore the proper theoretical basis as well as one of the main provisions of G. Hamel’s principles covering strategy, namely there is no unified model of management, which cannot be applied within all the organizations. Thus, to my mind, the system of values and principles are to be established, since they could always direct the employees, stakeholders to raise the quality of the goods and services, consequently, ‘meeting the main factor of success’, customer’s needs.
Although I am more likely to follow the planning-control-improvement structure, suggested by Juran, it is also appropriate to take into account the points, highlighted by Deming, in particular new philosophy how to attract customer will be established and the formation of leadership are to be done in the organization I will work in (Stamatis 1996).
4) How does your preferred quality philosophy influence your personal life?
The Juran’s philosophy does not merely belong to the main works of management and to the plans how to organize the legal entities, even though that was the purpose of its creation. It is all about the philosophy, in general, since its ideas can be applied to concrete human being, who also has to choose their own principles, desired behavior and the consequences and results, which a person wants to achieve. Contemporary life with open and free educational sources and the problem of unemployment creates the situation of great concurrency on the workforce market. Thus, anybody, who wants to obtain great salary as well as social and labor guarantees, has to be well-qualified and competent, even though such features cannot be called constant as everything changes rapidly.
Under such circumstances, I have concluded that third element of Juran’s ‘Quality Trilogy’, namely improvement, which means the process for breaking through to higher levels of quality and meeting the needs of customers for superior performance (Mandal 2008), is what I have been searching for in context of self-perfection. I’ve decided that it cannot be the final quality purpose-goal to graduate from the university so as to meet the customer-employer’s demands, but also it is necessary to attend courses (not only within my proficiency) and to be aimed at daily self-improvement, having certain plan, controlling this plan, and updating it.
5) What advice do you have for an organization that would like to apply this philosophy in the workplace?
The main problem of lots of multinational corporations is their pause in development. To their mind, the creation of brand, e.g. the trademark, is the key to their success, and there is nothing else to improve. My main suggestion is, at first, the development of so-called strategic management plan, in which, firstly, the main values and principles, which have to be shared by the employees and other stakeholders, have to be foreseen; secondly, the strategic plan of development for the following 5 years with concrete and detailed steps and means how to implement them are to be foreseen; thirdly, relying on Deming concept and his paying much attention to leadership issue, it is necessary to fix the responsible people for institutionalizing of the plan.
The aforementioned algorithm is the basis, namely this is Juran’s planning per se. The element of the next stage, control over the quality, can consist in the appointment of responsible for supervision persons, who possess the appropriate management skills and knowledge, is supported by the employees, and shares our values.
The third main element, differing Juran’s model from many other similar approaches, namely quality improvement, is to be based on paying much attention to analytical work related to the current state of affairs on market, in particular people’s needs and priorities, latest technological innovations, which can be used in the organization’s production etc. Also, the strategic management plan is to be revised after the succeeding in achieving the previously set goals on the matter of its correspondence with new reality. All these steps are, in fact, the reflection of the Deming’s new philosophy principle and institutionalization with some specific features of Juran’s Trilogy.
References
Kern, R. (2014) Dynamic Quality Management for Cloud Labor Services: Methods and Applications for Gaining Reliable Work Results with an On-Demand Workforce New York: Springer. Print
Landesberg, P. (1999) In the Beginning, There Were Deming and Juran Retrieved from:
http://www.virginia.edu/processsimplification/resources/DemingJuran.pdf
Mandal, S.K. (2008) Total Quality Management: Principles and Practice New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Ltd. Print
Stamatis, D.H. (1996) Total Quality Service: Principles, Practices, and Implementation New York: CRC Press. Print.
