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The subject of management for quality has
undergone rapid and drastic change as a result of competition
in the marketplace and the vulnerability of industrialized
societies that depend heavily on the quality of goods and
services. In this companion volume to his acclaimed Juran
on Planning for Quality, J. M. Juran provides top-level
managers with the specific, field-tested methods they need
to successfully lead their companies on the quest for superior
quality.
Managers have long recognized that the most
sound response to a competitive challenge is to become more
competitive. Today, informed managers also realize that
quality improvement is the best source of competitive advantage.
They know that return on investment in quality improvement
projects is among the highest available. Yet, the means
by which management can supply the leadership necessary
to attain quality goals remains elusive. J. M. Juran has
drawn on the experiences of thousands of chief executives
in companies around the world to create a clear plan of
action applicable to any industry, whether service or manufacturing.
The famous "Juran Trilogy," clearly
presented step-by-step, shows how to apply the familiar
business concepts of planning, control, and improvement
to quality leadership. For each concept, Dr. Juran provides
a succinct and proven series of actions. He gives criteria
for selecting project-by-project improvements and mobilizing
a team to carry them out. He also describes a realistic
timetable of implementation and directs the formation of
an ongoing quality council whose job is to launch, coordinate,
and "institutionalize" annual quality improvement.
The membership of this council, as Dr. Juran insists, must
come from the ranks of senior managers, the stakes are too
high for upper managers not to personally become the leaders
and members of this vital council.
Using real-world case examples of highly
profitable quality improvements in such companies as Bethlehem
Steel and Florida Power & Light, Dr. Juran illustrates
how to guide a company into a continuing steep rate of quality
improvement. The key, as Dr. Juran emphasizes, is that quality
must be implemented from the top down. This essential handbook
makes executive leadership the key to a company's quality
revolution -- and to producing the real cost benefits over
both the short and long run that superior quality brings.
J. M. Juran, author of Juran on Planning
for Quality (The Free Press), is founder and Chairman
Emeritus of Juran Institute, Inc. A consultant to various
industrial companies, government agencies, and other institutions,
Dr. Juran is also in demand as an international lecturer.
Awarded over thirty medals, fellowships,
and honorary memberships by professional and honor societies
in twelve countries, he is the recipient of the Second Class
of the Order of the Sacred Treasure given by the Emperor
of Japan -- the highest decoration awarded to a non-Japanese
citizen -- for "the development of Quality Control
in Japan and the facilitation of U.S. and Japanese friendship."
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