ABSTRACT
As Juran has pointed out in his most recent book on the history of quality (Juran 1995d), quality is nothing new. In fact, there has been quality in both the ancient world and the modem world. What makes it different in the modem world, however, is our perspective of quality. Whereas in the past the emphasis was on appraising quality through inspection techniques, sorting, and so on, the modem world is focusing on prevention methods, namely, to design quality into the product. That change of attitude in the world of quality obviously was not overnight. It took time and it was slowly developed over a period of years. There are many people who have contributed to this development. This chapter covers this paradigm change and the individuals who were instrumental not only in the theory, tools, and methodologies of pursuing quality, but also gave us the inspiration and rationale for aiming our goals to nothing but excellence. In our view these individuals are the true pioneers who indeed revolutionized the concept and the practice of quality.
