The Juran Trilogy, also called Quality Trilogy, was presented by Dr. Joseph M. Juran in 1986 as a means to manage for quality. The traditional approach to quality at that time was based on quality control, but today, the Trilogy has become the basis for most quality management best practices around the world.
In essence, the Juran Trilogy is a universal way of thinking about quality it fits all functions, all levels, and all product and service lines. The underlying concept is that managing quality consists of three universal processes:
- Quality Planning
- Quality Control
- Quality Improvement
The first task is to create something new, or to prepare for quality, or as we now say, “quality by design.” This might be a novel good, service, method, etc. As business activities continue, it quickly becomes clear that deliveries of our items do not always come with no defects. Why? because rework and redoing are necessary due to concealed failures or periodic failures (variation).
In the diagram, failures require redoing more than 20% of the effort. Chronic waste is that which persists until the organization resolves to eliminate it by identifying its underlying causes. It is known as the Price of Subpar Quality. The design and development process was unable to take into account all unanticipated challenges.
The operating forces cannot eliminate faults or waste under traditional accountability patterns. They can exercise control—as evidenced—to stop things from growing worse. The data displays a dramatic, erratic increase that has increased the failure rate to almost 40%. This increase was brought on by an unanticipated occurrence, such as a power outage, system failure, or employee error.
The operative troops congregate on the scene as part of the control phase and take action to reinstate the status quo. This is also known as troubleshooting, firefighting, remedial action, and other terms. The ultimate outcome is a return of the error level to the desired chronic level, which is roughly 20%.
Quality Planning: By creating products (items, services, or information) and the procedures—including controls—needed to create the end results, the design process makes it possible for innovation to take place. Many people today refer to this as Quality By Design or Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
The Juran Quality by Design approach is a structured procedure for developing novel design features that cater to the needs of customers and the features of the production processes to be used to produce those new designs. The phrase “Quality by Design” describes how firms build their products and services.
Quality Control: Every organization experiences daily improvement, even the underperformers. In the near term, that is how companies remain in operation. Every organization engages in the activity of improvement by carrying out daily actions to create little changes. Breakthrough improvement differs from daily improvement. To achieve major changes and results, breakthrough requires specialized techniques and leadership support.
It also differs from planning and control in that it calls for taking a “step back” to identify any potential obstacles to the current level of performance in fulfilling the demands of its clients. Leaders can develop a method to accelerate progress by concentrating on achieving breakthrough improvement. The Pareto Principle states that an organization can outperform its rivals and satisfy the needs of its stakeholders by making a small number of significant breakthroughs consistently.
Breakthrough is defined here as “the organized development of constructive change and the attainment of previously unheard-of levels of performance.” “Quality improvement” or “Six Sigma improvement” are synonyms. Achieving a Six Sigma level (3.4 ppm) or a 10-fold increase in process performance may be necessary for unprecedented change. Significant cost savings, improved customer satisfaction, and greater outcomes that will satisfy stakeholders are all produced by breakthroughs.
Quality Improvement: In the Juran Trilogy, compliance or quality control is the third universal process.
The phrase “control of quality” was first used around the beginning of the 20th century. The idea was to shift away from the then-dominant after-the-fact inspection (detection control) and toward what we now refer to as “prevention (proactive control).” For a few decades, the idea of quality planning was included in the broad definition of the word “control.” Then, things happened that constrained the definition of “quality control.” The “statistical quality control” movement fostered the idea that statistical methods were the only way to conduct quality control. According to the “reliability” trend, quality control only applied to product quality at the time of testing and not throughout the service life.
Today, the terms “quality control” and “compliance” are frequently used interchangeably. The objective is to adhere to global regulations or regulatory bodies like ISO 9000.
In several fields, the Juran Trilogy has changed through time. The goal of the trilogy has not changed as a result of this progression. Only the names are altered. For instance, traditional product manufacturers may refer to it as QC, QI, and QP, whereas another company would say QA/QC, CI, and DFSS. All employees seeking a way to keep things simple are nonetheless given thorough quality management through the Trilogy.
