QUALITY CIRCLES
By
Zaipul Anwar
Business & Advanced Technology Centre,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Overview
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What are Quality Circles?
Summary of History and Practices
How Do Quality Circles Work?
How Can They be Used in an Organization?
Example and Activity
Problems with Quality Circles
Bibliography
Summary of History and
Practices
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Quality Circles were first seen in the United
States in the 1950’s
Circles were developed by Dr, Kaoru Ishikawa
in Japan in the 1960’s
Circles were re-exported to the US in the early
1970’s
Summary of History and
Practices (continue)
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1980’s brought Total Quality Management and a
reduction in the use of Quality Circles
Quality Circles can be a useful tool if used
properly
Summary of History and
Practices (continue)
Inspection (1950’s)
Quality Control (1960’s)
Total Quality (1980’s)
Quality Assurance (1970’s)
“World Class”
Zero Defect,
Customer Focus,
Quick Response (1990’s)
2000’s ?
What is a Quality Circle?
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Voluntary groups of employees who work on similar
tasks or share an area of responsibility
They agree to meet on a regular basis to discuss & solve
problems related to work.
They operate on the principle that employee
participation in decision-making and problem-solving
improves the quality of workThe reduction, by their
efforts, of the countless number of problems which impede
the effectiveness of their work
Encourage circles to elect their own leaders towards the end
of the training period
What is a Quality Circle?
(continue)
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Frequency and duration of meetings is set by the group
Circle should be autonomous in that it should select the
problems that it wishes to solve QCCs useful for
mutual-self-development and process control and
improvement within their workshop.
Utilising basic 7 QC Tools.
Japanese experience indicated that 95% of the
problems in the workshop can be solved through 7
QC Tools
The Japanese description of the
effectiveness of a quality circle is
expressed as:
“It is better for one hundred people to take one step
than for one person to take a hundred’
The World Turned Upside Down!
CUSTOMER FOCUSED /
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
CONTROL
CEO
OPERATORS
SNR MGT
MANAGEMENT
SUPERVISORS
MANAGEMENT
SUPERVISORS
SNR MGT
OPERATORS
CEO
MASS PRODUCTIVITY /
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
COACH
How Do Quality Circles Work?
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All members of a Circle need to receive training
Members need to be empowered
Members need to have the support of Senior
Management
Characteristics
Volunteers
 Set Rules and Priorities
 Decisions made by Consensus
 Use of organized approaches to Problem-Solving
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Formation of Quality Circles
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Start on the Shop Floor
Base Circle on Training
Allow the Circle to Form Itself
Do The Training Properly
Support with Information Required
Provide Skills and Experience
Requirements of Quality Circles
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Management Support
Training
Recognition System
How Can They be Used in an
Organization?
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Increase Productivity
Improve Quality
Boost Employee Morale
The Premise of Quality Circles
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Much of the trouble originated from the gulf
between management and shop floor
Operators were frequently well aware of the
cause of quality problems and, with modern
standards of education, often knew how to
cure them
Team Exercise
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Break down into teams of 6-8 people
Establish a leader and rules for your Circle
Have a brainstorming and problem-solving
session to resolve the issue on the next slide
Team Exercise
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A Collegiate class on Statistical Analysis has a total
enrollment of 45 people.
Average attendance is 18 students
The class consists mainly of lectures
How can the professor of this class improve the quality
of this course and increase student involvement?
The Benefits of Quality Circles
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A Direct Pay-off (cost/benefits)
An Operator To Manager Dialogue (involvement,
participation, communication)
A Manager To Manager Dialogue (awareness)
An Operator to Operator Dialogue (attitudes)
A Quality Mindedness (product quality and
reliability, prevention of non-conformance)
The Personal Development of the Participants
Reasons for failure of
Quality Circles
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Inadequate Training
Unsure of Purpose
Not truly Voluntary
Lack of Management Interest
Quality Circles are not really empowered to
make decisions.
Reasons for failure of
Quality Circles (continue)
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They have not had enough training
They have not been given sufficient
autonomy
The Quality Circles have been started in
isolation and not part of a wider programme
of Company-wide Continuous Improvement
Bibliography
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Cole, Robert E. 1999. Managing Quality Fads: How American
Business Learned to Play the Quality Game. New York, NY: Oxford
Press.
Aubrey, Charles A. 1988. Teamwork: Involving People in Quality and
Productivity Improvement. Milwaukee, WI: Quality Press.
Foster, S. Thomas. 2001. Managing Quality: An Integrative
Approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Author
Unknown. 1984. Quality Circles in the Community College [online].
Available online via
http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed353008.html
Author Unknown. 1994. Kaizen and Quality Circles [online].
Available online via
http://sol.brunel.ac.uk/~jarvis/bola/quality/circles.html
QUALITY
IMPROVEMENT TEAMS
QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
TEAMS
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Team formed where there is a specific problem
whose solution is unlikely to reside in a single
department and which is large enough to justify
the establishment of a team to resolve the
problem
For example (the combined actions of
Production, Testing, Technical Departments as
well as the Supplier for persistent equipment
breakdown)
CHARACTERISTICS OF QITS
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Set up by management
Inter-departmental
Group is usually formed to resolve a problem
identified by others
Team is usually disbanded once the problem
solved
BENEFITS OF QITS
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Break Down Inter-Departmental Barriers
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Solutions Are More Global In Concept
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optimised for corporate rather than departmental goals
Improved Communications
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QIT process is part of team building and ownership of the
problem
solutions are sought for the corporate good rather than to
shift blame
Improved Problem Solving
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create a degree of mobile expertise in problem solving
within the company
THE QIT PROCESS
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Adequate training in appropriate skills must
be provided before the QIT starts work
To deny the team the problem-solving tools
it needs to carry out the task is inviting failure
which will affect not only the issue under
consideration but the credibility of the QIT
process itself
THE QIT PROCESS
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Identify the Project And Form The Team
Define The Problem Accurately
Identify And Verify Root Causes
Plan And Implement Corrective Action
Standardise And Seek Other Applications
Conduct A Review Of The Project