QUALITY CIRCLE

Submitted by,
Rahul B R
Roll No: 34
2
nd
SEM
SMBS
Introduction
Quality circles were originally associated with Japanese management and
manufacturing techniques. The introduction of quality circles in Japan in the postwar
years was inspired by the lectures of W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993), a statistician for
the U.S. government.
Quality Circle is one of the employee participation methods. It implies the
development of skills, capabilities, confidence and creativity of the people through
cumulative process of education, training, work experience and participation.
It also implies the creation of facilitative conditions and environment of work,
which creates and sustains their motivation and commitment towards work excellence.
Quality Circles have emerged as a mechanism to develop and utilize the tremendous
potential of people for improvement in product quality and productivity.
Definition
Quality Circle is a small group of 6 to 12 employees doing similar work who
voluntarily meet together on a regular basis to identify improvements in their respective
work areas using proven techniques for analysing and solving work related problems
coming in the way of achieving and sustaining excellence leading to mutual upliftment of
employees as well as the organisation. It is "a way of capturing the creative and
innovative power that lies within the work force".
A quality circle is a volunteer group composed of workers (or even students),
usually under the leadership of their supervisor (or an elected team leader), who are
trained to identify, analyze and solve work-related problems and present their solutions to
management in order to improve the performance of the organization, and motivate and
enrich the work of employees. When matured, true quality circles become self-managing,
having gained the confidence of management.
Quality circles are an alternative to the rigid concept of division of labor, where
workers operate in a more narrow scope and compartmentalized functions. Typical topics
are improving occupational safety and health, improving product design, and
improvement in the workplace and manufacturing processes. The term quality circles was
defined by Professor Kaoru Ishikawa in a journal entitled. and circulated throughout
Japanese industry by JUSE in 1960. The first company in Japan to introduce Quality
Circles was the Nippon Wireless and Telegraph Company in 1962. By the end of that
year there were 36 companies registered with JUSE by 1978 the movement had grown to
an estimated 1 million Circles involving some 10 million Japanese workers. Contrary to
some people's opinion this movement had nothing whatever to do with Dr. Edwards
Deming or indeed Dr Juran and both were skeptical as to whether it could be made to
work in the USA or the West generally.
Quality circles are typically more formal groups. They meet regularly on company
time and are trained by competent persons (usually designated as facilitators) who may
be personnel and industrial relations specialists trained in human factors and the basic
skills of problem identification, information gathering and analysis, basic statistics, and
solution generation. Quality circles are generally free to select any topic they wish (other
than those related to salary and terms and conditions of work, as there are other channels
through which these issues are usually considered).
Quality circles have the advantage of continuity; the circle remains intact from
project to project. (For a comparison to Quality Improvement Teams, see Juran's Quality
by Design.
History
Quality circles were first established in Japan in 1962; Kaoru Ishikawa has been
credited with their creation. The movement in Japan was coordinated by the Japanese
Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). The first circles were established at the
Nippon Wireless and Telegraph Company but then spread to more than 35 other
companies in the first year. By 1978 it was claimed that there were more than one million
quality circles involving some 10 million Japanese workers. They are now in most East
Asian countries; it was recently claimed that there were more than 20 million quality
circles in China.
Quality circles have been implemented even in educational sectors in India, and QCFI
(Quality Circle Forum of India) is promoting such activities. However this was not
successful in the United States, as it (was not properly understood and) turned out to be a
fault-finding exercise although some circles do still exist. ref Don Dewar who together
with Wayne Ryker and Jeff Beardsley first established them in 1972 at the Lockheed
Space Missile Factory in California.
Objectives
The perception of Quality Circles today is Appropriateness for use and the tactic
implemented is to avert imperfections in services rather than verification and elimination.
Hence the attitudes of employees influence the quality. It encourages employee
participation as well as promotes teamwork. Thus it motivates people to contribute
towards organizational effectiveness through group processes.
The following could be grouped as broad intentions of a Quality Circle:
To contribute towards the improvement and development of the organization or a
department.
To overcome the barriers that may exist within the prevailing organizational
structure so as to foster an open exchange of ideas.
To develop a positive attitude and feel a sense of involvement in the decision
making processes of the services offered.
To respect humanity and to build a happy work place worthwhile to work.
To display human capabilities totally and in a long run to draw out the infinite
possibilities.
To improve the quality of products and services.
To improve competence, which is one of the goals of all organizations.
To reduce cost and redundant efforts in the long run.
With improved efficiency, the lead time on convene of information and its
subassemblies is reduced, resulting in an improvement in meeting customers due
dates.
Customer satisfaction is the fundamental goal of any library. It will ultimately be
achieved by Quality Circle and will also help to be competitive for a long time.

Why Quality Circle
It is said that 95% of the problems in workshops can be solved through quality control
tools. The Japanese have experienced this! The quality control tools useful for QCCs are
Pareto Diagrams, Cause-and-Effect Diagrams, Stratification, Check Sheets, Histograms,
Scatter Diagrams, Graphs and Control Charts. Also, logical thinking and experience are a
must for solving problems. Therefore the main objectives of QC are:
To improve quality and productivity.
To reduce the cost of products or services by waste reduction, safety, effective
utilization of resources, avoiding unnecessary errors and defects.
To identify and solve work-related problems and interfere with production as a
team.
To tap the creative intelligence of people working in the org. and make full use of
human resources.
To improve communication within the organization.
To improve employees loyalty and commitment to the organization and its goals.
(Promoting Morale of employees)
To build a happy, bright, meaningful work environment.
To satisfy the human needs of recognition, achievement and self development
Benefits
Heightened quality awareness reveals faults in the system that might obstruct good
practices.It improves the quality of your firms products and services, thereby increasing
the value of your brand, and securing your customers confidence. The quality of
customer relationship management can be further enhanced by using help desk software
from the likes of pro software. The people who are part of the quality control circle will
feel a sense of ownership for the project. Higher yields and lower rejection rates also
result in enhanced job satisfaction for workers, which in turn drives them to contribute
more.
A quality control circle program also brings about improved two-way
communication between the staff and the management. Finally, the financial benefits will
certainly exceed the costs of implementing the program. A study revealed that some
companies improved their savings tenfold!
Basic Organizational Structure of QC
A quality circle should have an appropriate organizational structure for its
effective and efficient performance. The structure may vary from one org. to another, but
it is useful to have basic framework as a model:
In a typical organization, the structure of a QC may consist of the following elements:
1. Steering committee Gen. manager / works manager, rep. from top management, rep.
of human resource development and a rep. of employees union.
2. Coordinator: an administrative officer / personnel officer from middle level
management.
3. Facilitator: senior supervisory officer / foreman. A facilitator may manage up to 10
circles. A facilitator is usually from one of the three departments quality control,
production or training.
4. Circle Leader: circle leaders may be from the lowest level of supervisors. A circle
leader organises and conducts circle activities.
5. Circle members: line and / or staff workers ( circle members should attend all meetings
as far as possible, offer suggestions and ideas, participate actively in group processes, and
attain training seriously.
Conclusion
Generally, a quality control circle program requires the same framework as an ISO
9000 quality standard with regard to the management structure and training. Hence,
QCCs should be part and parcel of your company's Total Quality Management (TQM)
initiative.
However, QC followed some ethics, those are:
Criticize ideas, not persons.
The only stupid question is the one that is not asked.
Everyone in the team is responsible for the teams progress.
Be open to others ideas.
Pay, terms of employment and other negotiable items are excluded.