Quality Circle at Turbines International
At Solar Turbines International (a Caterpillar Tractor Company subsidiary)
employees were frustated by the lack of power hand tools. They studied the
lost production time caused by waiting for tools and showed management how
to save more than $ 30,000 a year by making a $ 2200 investment in additional
hand tools.
The employees didn’t select this problem to save management money; they did it
because of the inconvenience insufficient tools caused. The fact that the
solution saved more than a dozen times what it cost was the type of by-product
many companies report from successful quality circle efforts.