Quality Circles
The concept behind
quality circles is widely believed to have been developed in Japan in
1962 by
Kaoru Ishikawa as a method to improve quality, though it is also
argued that the practice started with the United States Army soon after
1945, whilst restoring the war torn nation, and the Japanese adopted and
adapted the concept and its application.
A quality circle is a volunteer group of employees from the same work
area who meet together to discuss workplace improvement. The circle is
empowered to promote and bring quality improvements through to fruition.
Though quality circles are not the silver bullet solution for quality
improvement, with the right top end management commitment, resources,
and organisation, they can support continuous quality improvement at
shop floor level.
Because of the social focus of a Quality Circle group, they can not only
improve the performance or an organisation, but also motivate and enrich
the work lives of fellow employees. A typical Quality Circle group will
display a good approach to:
* Analysing the context of a problems and its situation
* Define exactly what the problem is and the relationship between
its component parts
* Identify and verify that the causes are indeed causes, ensuring
that solutions address the real problem
* Define, quantify and measure the impact of a given problem
* Understand the quality objectives
* Create a solution to a given problem
Quality Circle groups generally address issues such as improving safety,
improving product design, and improving manufacturing process. Because
Quality Circle groups remain intact from project to project they have
the advantage of consistency, though they retain the option to call in
expertise or request training when needed.
Techniques used by a Quality Circle group will usually consist of
process capability flow charts, lot sampling, brainstorming, cause and
effect analysis, reverse engineering, value analysis, and pareto
analysis.
Japanese Quality Circles demonstrated the effectiveness of worker teams
in identifying and solving process problems in their own work areas.
However the more serious quality problems from non-manufacturing
organisations often arise in activities that span more than one
department or function.
A Quality Circle
A Quality Circle is a
volunteer group composed of workers (or even students) who meet to
discuss workplace improvement, and make presentations to management with
their ideas, especially relating to quality of output in order to
improve the performance of the organization, and motivate and enrich the
work of employees. Typical topics are improving occupational safety and
health, improving product design, and improvement in manufacturing
process.
The ideal size of a quality circle is from eight to ten members.
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[1].
Quality circles were first established in Japan in 1962, and Kaoru
Ishikawa has been credited with their creation. The movement in Japan
was coordinated by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers
(JUSE).
The use of quality circles then spread beyond Japan. Quality circles
have been implemented even in educational sectors in India and QCFI
(Quality Circle Forum of India) is promoting such activities.
There are different quality circle tools, namely:
* The Ishikawa diagram - which shows hierarchies of causes
contributing to a problem
* The Pareto Chart - which analyses different causes by frequency to
illustrate the vital cause
* The PDCA-Deming wheel - Plan, Do, Check, Act, as described by W.
Edwards Deming
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_circle
http://www.mangurus.com/sections/methods/?article_id=quality_circles
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