Fighting Complacency In The Culture Of Quality

By Kaaren Valenta

Before World War II, the slogan “made in Japan” was synonymous with shoddy goods. Today Japanese technology is acknowledged as among the finest in the world.

Much of the credit for the turnaround goes to an American management icon, Joseph M. Juran, who helped Japanese industrialists establish quality measures as a business priority in the 1950s and 1960s. The successes achieved by the Japanese in setting new standards for excellence in many industries marked a turning point in that country’s economic development. It also prompted many US manufacturers to follow suit.

In May, Dr Juran celebrated his 100th birthday. The Juran Institute, founded in 1979, now is directed by Newtown resident Joseph A. DeFeo, who has continued to expand its focus far beyond manufacturing into areas as varied as health care, insurance, hotels, and financial services.

In a recent interview, Mr DeFeo said a trip to China in the fall of 2002 convinced him that what Japan experienced could be repeated in the world’s largest country.

“Today China looks like Japan did in 1945–50,” Mr DeFeo said. “The big difference is that while there are 100 million Japanese, there are a billion Chinese. There is another revolution that will take place.”

The key for American business to stay competitive is to continue to improve its products and services, he said. “You have to keep improving faster than your competition.”

Over the years, Dr Juran’s philosophy inspired and became the foundation of quality management systems, such as Six Sigma, that were designed and implemented by Motorola, General Electric, and other US companies. Six Sigma is a business improvement strategy that enables an organization to improve performance by eliminating deficient processes and defects in products and services. At its center is a mathematical measure, six sigma, that allows a deviation or failure of only 3.5 parts per million.

In 1951 Dr Juran wrote the standard reference work on quality control, the Quality Control Handbook, now in its fifth edition. In 1986 he published The Juran Trilogy, which identified three processes — quality control, quality improvement, and quality planning — as the basis for quality management.

Last fall Mr DeFeo, president and chief executive officer of the Juran Institute, and William Bernard, senior vice president, wrote the Juran Institute’s Six Sigma: Breakthrough and Beyond, (McGraw-Hill, $39.95), a book about quality performance breakthrough methods.

Mr DeFeo said he was motivated to write the book because companies that have adopted Six Sigma training for their staff often still need help.

“Organizations get complacent about their performance or they want to improve but don’t know how,” he explained. “This book explains how to achieve that breakthrough.”

The new book focuses on four major themes. The first describes the predicament that many organizations will face if they continue to improve at a lackluster rate. The second is about the current state of Six Sigma initiatives and how to assure that an initiative is achieving its desired results.

The third is about the organizational breakthroughs needed to sustain Six Sigma results — sustain competitiveness and global leadership — beyond a one- to three-year period. The fourth is a road map or set of activities that need to be carried out to enable organizations to move beyond their present performance, beyond Six Sigma.

The book is available in bookstores or at www.books.mcgraw-hill.com.

 “We’re already working on a new book that relates to the health care industry,” Mr DeFeo said. “About one-third of our business now is in health care.”

He recently began working with the University of Connecticut and the UConn Health Center, examining their functioning and relationships. In the past he has worked with the Newtown school district, helping the middle school teachers to do focus groups, and doing staff training on quality in education at the high school.

“Much of that type of work we do pro bono,” Mr DeFeo said. “Anyone that has a customer that isn’t happy and a process that costs too much is a candidate for Six Sigma.”

Mr DeFeo and his wife, Monica, have three sons who have gone through the local schools. Christopher is in a doctoral biochemical program at Yale; Mark has finished his second year at Boston College and is attending the London School of Economics, and Joey, who graduated this month, is entering Providence College.

“I started out as a high school teacher, teaching industrial arts at Joel Barlow High School in 1979 right out of college,” Mr DeFeo said. “When the program was being cut back, I was offered another teaching position but I decided to take a job at PerkinElmer doing technical training. At that time PerkinElmer was the sixth largest employer in the state of Connecticut.”

He moved to Newtown with his family in 1982. “When I was working for PerkinElmer, it was right across the street from the Juran Institute, which had moved to Connecticut from New York City. I joined [Juran] as an instructor, the only Connecticut resident on the staff at that time.”

Today Mr DeFeo leads all the strategic business units for the institute and is responsible for the development of business on a worldwide level. He is a consultant and executive trainer for such programs as Strategic Deployment, Six Sigma Breakthrough, and Designs for World Class Quality.

Mr DeFeo’s articles on business improvement have appeared in many publications including Total Quality Review magazine, where he is on the advisory board, The Informed Outlook, and Investor’s Business Daily.

He frequently is a guest speaker at business events, has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University and New York University, and has served as an adjunct professor at Central Connecticut State University. Mr DeFeo has a bachelor’s degree in industrial education from Central Connecticut State College, and an MBA from Western Connecticut State University.