Vital Few, Useful Many

Vital Few, Useful Many - A term Joseph M. Juran used to describe the Pareto principle, which he first defined in 1950. (The principle was used much earlier in economics and inventory control methods.) The principle suggests most effects come from relatively few causes; that is, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the possible causes. The 20% of the possible causes are referred to as the "vital few;" the remaining causes are referred to as the "useful many." When Juran first defined this principle, he referred to the remaining causes as the "trivial many," but realizing that no problems are trivial in Quality assurance (QA), he changed it to "useful many." Also see "eighty-twenty (80-20)."

[Category=Quality ]

Source: American Society for Quality, 29 October 2010 09:36:18, http://www.asq.org/glossary/

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Vital Few - Derived from the pareto chart, the term indicates that many defects come from relatively few causes (the 80/20 rule). For example, 20% of the people in the country make up 80% of the wealth of the country.

Vital Few: These are the few (20%) independent variables (X's) which contribute to maximum (80%) of the total variation. These are identified through Pareto Charts and Design of Experiments.

[Category=Data Quality ]

Source: iSixSigma, 03 March 2011 09:16:40, https:web.archive.org/web/20111109014246/http:www.isixsigma.com/index.php?option=com_glossary