"Whatever advances American manufacturing has made in the last 30 to 40 years, we owe to Joe Juran." --Peter Drucker

No one in the last hundred years has had more influence on the worldwide practice of quality in business than Dr. Juran. The roots of Six Sigma, TQM, ISO 9000, and other major quality movements can all be found in his teachings and writings.

In Architect of Quality, the man who helped invent and champion quality management systems, quality circles, and teams long before they became standard practice tells the inspiring story of his life.

Juran relates a classic American tale of a Romanian immigrant who overcame dire poverty and a childhood in a tar paper shack to make a profound impact on business and society. He candidly describes his rapid success and dramatic failure in his early years at Western Electric's famed Hawthorne plant and relives his experiences working on the war effort in Washington, DC, in the '40s and then advising postwar Japan on how to rebuild itself.

Juran describes how he developed the core ideas behind the quality movement that started more than 60 years ago and now finds expression in the Six Sigma quality improvement movement.