Re: Deming's 80/20 Rule

[Jim McKinley <leaders@gulftel.com>]

"The Pareto diagram is named after Vilfredo Pareto, a 19th-century Italian
economist who postulated that a large share of wealth is owned by a small
percentage of the population." (from a post in Digest V00 #82)

Dr. Juran has written an article about the origin of the Pareto diagram,
"The Non-Pareto Principle; Mea Culpa"

The article can be accessed at the following address:

http://www.juran.com/research/articles/SP7518.html

Excerpts from the article:

The Non-Pareto Principle; Mea Culpa


                           J.M. Juran
                       Contributing Editor

 The "Pareto principle" has by this time become deeply rooted in our
industrial
 literature. It is a shorthand name for the phenomenon that in any
population which
 contributes to a common effect, a relative few of the contributors account
for the
 bulk of the effect. 

 Years ago I gave the name "Pareto" to this principle of the "vital few and
trivial
 many." On subsequent challenge, I was forced to confess that I had mistakenly
 applied the wrong name to the principle.1 This confession changed nothing
- the
 name "Pareto principle" has continued in force, and seems destined to
become a
 permanent label for the phenomenon. 

 The matter has not stopped with my own error. On various occasions
 contemporary authors, when referring to the Pareto principle, have fabricated
 some embellishments and otherwise attributed to Vilfredo Pareto additional
things
 which he did not do. My motive in offering the present paper is in part to
minimize
 this tendency to embroider the work of a distinguished Italian economist. In
 addition, I have for some time felt an urge to narrate just how it came
about that
 some early experiences in seemingly unrelated fields (quality control,
cryptanalysis,
 industrial engineering, government administration, management research)
 nevertheless converged to misname the Pareto principle. 

----

To summarize, and to set the record straight: 

   1.Numerous men, over the centuries, have observed the existence of the
      phenomenon of vital few and trivial many as it applied to their local
sphere
      of activity. 

   2.Pareto observed this phenomenon as applied to distribution of wealth, and
      advanced the theory of a logarithmic law of income distribution to
fit the
      phenomenon. 

   3.Lorenz developed a form of cumulative curve to depict the distribution of
      wealth graphically. 

   4.Juran was (seemingly) the first to identify the phenomenon of the
vital few
      and trivial many as a "universal," applicable to many fields. 

   5.Juran applied the name "The Pareto Principe" to this universal. Juran
also
      coined the phrase "vital few and trivial many" and applied the Lorenz
curves
      to depict this Universal in graphic form." 5 

----
Jim McKinley   Excellence in Leadership   leaders@gulftel.com
721 N. McKenzie St.  Suite 2  Foley, Al.  36535-3542 

Paul Dressel on grades: "an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgment by
a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a student has attained
an undefined amount of material."
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