QUALITY CIRCLESA tool for Total Quality Management

Total – “Made up of whole”

Management – ‘An art of planning, organizing, directing and controlling the assigned activities that takes place to accomplish objectives.’According to F.W. Taylor (Father of scientific Management), ‘Knowing exactly what you want men to do and seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way.’

Quality -

“Quality is an attribute of a product or service that fulfills or exceeds the human expectations. These expectations are based on the intended use and selling / service price. “According to definition of ISO 8402, “ Totality of characteristics of an entity that bears on its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs.”

Total Quality Management

J M Juran – “Fit for use ”

W. Edward Deming – “Continuous Improvement “

Philip Crossby – “Conformance to specifications”

Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa – “Most Economical, useful and always satisfactory to the customer or

audience”

Quality Gurus Speak On Quality

Techniques Employed for TQM

Benchmarking

Business Process Re-engineering

Kaizen

Quality Circle

Total Productive Maintenance

Six Sigma

Poka Yoka

Quality Function Deployment

Quality Circle is one of the employee participation methods.

It creates conditions and environment of work that stimulates commitment towards excellence.

Quality Circles utilize the potential of people for improvement in quality.

WHY Quality Circles

Genesis of Quality Circles

Before the World War II, quality control pioneers existed in Japanese companies such as Toshiba.

In 1949, after the war the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) was established to educate people about Quality Circle.

On July 10, 1950, W.Edwards Deming started an eight day seminar on the theory of statistical Quality Control.

Deming discussed how to make control charts and how to sample and inspect products.

From this solid foundations, the Japanese established quality control departments in their companies.

They found that some aspects had to be altered to fit the Japanese workplace.

One of these alterations resulted in the formation of “QUALITY CIRCLE”. Pioneers like, K. Ishikawa, Juran were the basis for creating quality circles. They used such statistical quality control techniques as Pareto charts,

cause and effect diagrams. The spirit of quality circle embodied in the efforts of all those pioneers who

recognized the need for improvement.

Philosophy Quality Circles are a people – building philosophy It represents a philosophy of managing people

specially those at the grass root level as well as a clearly defined mechanism and methodology for translating this philosophy into practice and a required structure to make it a way of life.

It is bound to succeed where people are respected and are involved in decisions, concerning their work life, and in environments where people’s capabilities are looked upon as assets to solve work-area problems.

The Quality Circle philosophy calls for a progressive attitude on the part of the management

Definition of Quality Circle

A small group of between three and twelve people who do the same or similar work, voluntarily meeting together regularly for about an hour per week in paid time, usually under the Leadership of their own supervisor, and trained to identify, analyze, and solve some of the problems in their work, presenting solutions to management, and where possible, implementing the solutions themselves.'

Finer points from the Definition

A small group of three to twelve people Voluntarily meeting together Meeting regularly for about an hour per week In paid time Under the leadership of their own supervisor To identify, analyze and solve problems in their

work Presenting solutions to management Implementing the solutions themselves

Multi-faced objectives of QC

a. Change in attitude. From “I don’t care to “I do care” Continuous improvement in quality of work life

through humanization of work

b. Self Development Bring out ‘Hidden Potential’ of people People get to learn additional skills

c. Development of Team Spirit Individual v/s Team – “I could not do it, but the team

did it” Eliminate interdepartmental conflict

d. Improved Organizational Structure Positive working environment Total involvement of people at all levels Higher motivational level

Structure of a Quality Circle

Top Management

Steering Committee

Coordinator

Facilitator

Leader

Members

Non-QC members

Roles and Responsibilities

Top Manageme

nt

Steering Committ

ee

Coordinator

Facilitator

Leader

Members

Non QC Membe

rs

The Success of the quality circle depends

solely on the attitude of the top

management and plays an important role to ensure the success of implementation of quality circles in the organization.

Roles and ResponsibilitiesTop

Management

Steering Committee

Coordinator

Facilitator

Leader

Members

Non QC Membe

rs

Steering committee called middle management consists of chief executive

heads of different divisions or a coordinator plays a positive role in quality circle’s activities for the success of the efforts.The meetings are conveyed at least once in one or two months interval.

Roles and ResponsibilitiesTop

Management

Steering Committ

ee

Coordinator

Facilitator

Leader

Members

Non QC Membe

rs

Coordinator, who also acts as a facilitator, is an individual responsible for coordinating and directing the quality circles activities within an organization and carries out such functions as would make the operations of quality circles smooth, effective and self-sustainable.

Roles and ResponsibilitiesTop

Management

Steering Committ

ee

Coordinator

FacilitatorLeader

Members

Non QC Membe

rs

Facilitator acts as a catalyst, innovator, promoter and teacher and is nominated by the management. His Roles are as follows:i. Communicating with all levels of management and

obtaining their support;ii. Facilitating the training of QC leaders and members;iii. Maintaining an open and supportive environment;iv. Ensure objectivity in the activities of QC;v. As a mediator in problem solving;vi. As a resource person to the circle;vii.Evaluating the cost and benefits of the QC program and

reporting it to the management

Roles and ResponsibilitiesTop

Management

Steering Committ

ee

Coordinator

Facilitator

LeaderMembers

Non QC Membe

rs

The leader is chosen by the members amongst themselves and is rotated on a regular basis. His role is mainly as follows:

i. Training members on problem solving techniques with the assistance of the facilitator as and when required;

ii. Fostering the spirit of cooperation amongst the members;iii. Assisting the circle members in record keeping and in the

preparation of management presentations;iv. Conducting meeting in an orderly and effective manner;v. Encouraging other people to become members;vi. Enforcing team discipline and channelizing the efforts effectively

Roles and ResponsibilitiesTop

Management

Steering Committ

ee

Coordinator

Facilitator

Leader

Members Non QC Members

Members of the quality circles are a small group of people from the same work area or doing similar type of work whereas non-members are those who are not the members of the QC but provide suggestions. Members are expected to;

i. Attend meetings regularly;ii. Direct their efforts towards solving work-related problems;iii. Identifying problems, contributing ideas, undertaking

research and investigating (where necessary) and assisting the QC in problem solving;

iv. Participating in management presentations

Launching of Quality CircleThe steps involved are: Expose middle level executives to concept. Explain concept to the employees and invite them to

volunteer as members of Quality Circle. Nominate senior officials as facilitators. Form a steering committee. Arrange training of coordinators, facilitators and members. Fix meetings for Quality Circles to meet. Formally inaugurate the Quality Circle. Arrange necessary facilities for Quality circle meetings and

its operations.

The most important aspect of a successful Quality Circle is it’s caliber to perform as a team and identify, research and solve problems.

Appropriate training needs to be imparted for the optimum performance by the Quality Circle. Training comprises of: Brief orientation program for top management Program for middle level executives. Training for facilitators. Training for circle leaders and members.

Training

The readiness of the management to sanction and support Quality Circle is fundamental to it’s success. Organizational Readiness can be assessed by scrutiny of answers to the following questions:

Is the organization and management competent enough?

Is management willing to settle for long term benefits if short term ones do not materialize?

Is the management flexible and committed enough? Is management willing to accept involvement and

share power?

Organizational Readiness

Recommend

Assess

Clean

Analyse

Report

Action and Implementation

Quality Circle

Process of operation

Problem Identification identify the number of problem

Problem Analysis clarified and analysed

Generate alternative solutions Identify and evaluate causes and generate

number of possible solutions

Select most appropriate solutions Identify & generate causes Generate possible alternative solutions

Prepare plan for action convert solutions to reality

Present solution to management Fore approval

Implement of solution Evaluated recommended solution

How to use the concept

With the help of 3 main parts: Identifying

Free to brainstrom List & analyzed each problem

Analyzing Focus on one problem Create an appropriate solution Involves opinion from member & researcher

Results of Analysis Prepare to solve the problem Explain in- how it works, what solution result

should be Results- shown to the managers & group

Selection of theme

Study

Planning of improveme

nt

Execution of improvemen

t

Conformation of effect

Conclusion

PresentationFormation of

QC CircleRegistration of QC circle

Recorded by Quality

Control Section of

plant

QC circle grand meeting of each division

QC circle grand meeting of each plant

Companywide QC circle grand meeting

Circles acknowledged for excellence participate in the

grand meetings of other firms

How QC Circle Works

Implementing quality circles

Quality circles require top management support

Personal characteristics of facilitators are critical

Scope of project needs to be small enough to be capably addressed by the team

Success of other teams has positive peer pressure effect

Organization• 8 to 10

members, same area moderators

Training• Group

Processes• Data

collection• Problem

Analysis

Problem ID• Brainstormi

ng• List

alternatives• Consensus

Problem Analysis• Data

collection & Analysis

• Cause & effect

Solution• Problems• Result

Presentation• Implementati

on• Monitoring

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a group participative technique. It unlocks and discloses the untapped creative talents and resources in people.

It is a technique for gathering the greatest number of ideas, which in turn, spark enthusiasm and originality amongst the member of the QC.

Brainstorming is used when the Circle want to:

1.Identifly a problem

2.Investigate the cause

3.Find a solution

Tools

Control Chart Scatter Diagram Histogram Cause & Effect diagram Flowchart Check-sheet Pareto Diagram

Pareto Chart

Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) Italian economist 20% of the population has 80% of the

wealth Juran used the term “vital few, trivial

many”. He noted that 20% of the quality problems caused 80% of the dollar loss.

A Pareto Chart

average

UCL

LCL

Control Chart

A Control Chart is simply a run chart with statistically determined upper (Upper Control Limit) and possible lower (Lower Control Limit) lines drawn on either side of the process average.

The UCL is three standard deviations above the average and the LCL is three standard deviations below the average.

30 60 90 120 150

100

80

60

40

20

0

Test

Sco

res

Study Time Minutes

Purpose: When you need to display what happens to one variable when another variable changes in order to test a theory that the two variables are related. It shows possible cause and effect relationships. It cannot prove that one variable causes the other, but it does make it clear whether a relationship exists and the strength of that relationship. The direction and “tightness” of the cluster give a clue to the strength of the relationship between the two variables. If you find the values being repeated, circle that point as many times as appropriate.

Scatter Diagram

Histogram: When you need to discover and display the distribution of data by bar graphing the number of units in each category.

A Histogram displays the distribution of measurement data, such as scores, size, time, or temperature. This is critical since we know that all repeated events will

produce results that vary over time. A Histogram reveals the amount of variation that any process has within it.

Assuming that the perfect arrival time is 8:00 and the goal is to arrive within 5 minutes of the scheduled arrival time, attention needs to be paid to the causes of the later arrival times.60 data points (10 bus drivers logged their

arrival time over 6 day period of time)

Acceptable Bus Arrival Time

1 24

6

14

9 8 74 3 2

0

5

10

15

arrival time at school

freq

uen

cy Lower limit Upper limit

HISTOGRAM

This diagram represents the relationship between some “effect” and all the possible “causes.”

The major causes might be summarized under categories referred to as People, Methods, Materials, Procedures, Machinery, Environment, and/or Policies. However, a QC may use any major category that emerges or helps people think creatively.

From this well-defined list of possible causes, the most likely are identified and selected for further analysis.

When examining each cause, look for things that have changed, deviations from the norm or patterns. For each cause, ask, Why does it happen?” and list the responses as branches off the major causes. This way, a QC looks for causes that appear repeatedly, and reach a team consensus.

Cause & Effect Diagram (Fishbone Diagram)

Major Cause

Major Cause

Major Cause

Major Cause

Sub Causes

EF

FE

CT

QualityProblem

MachinesMeasurement Man

MethodEnvironment Materials

Faulty testing equipment

Incorrect specifications

Improper methods

Poor supervision

Lack of concentration

Inadequate training

Out of adjustment

Tooling problems

Old / worn

Defective from vendor

Not to specifications

Material-handling problems

Deficienciesin product design

Ineffective qualitymanagement

Poor process design

Inaccuratetemperature control

Dust and Dirt

Flowcharts are a graphical description of how work is done, and are used to describe processes that are to be improved.Flowcharts provide excellent documentation of a program and can be useful for examining how various steps in a process are related to each other. Sometimes it is helpful to draw two flowcharts, one with the actual steps in a process and one with how the process should work. Comparing the two charts will show where there are differences and where

problems generally arise.

" Draw a flowchart for whatever you do. Until you do, you do not know what you are doing,you just have a job.”

-- Dr. W. Edwards Deming.

Flowchart

Flowchart Symbols

Activity

Decision

Report

Complex activity

Group meeting

Multiple reports

The End!

Contribution

Shifts

De

fect

Typ

e

Checksheet

Checksheets form a systematic means of collecting and analysing data.They are special types of data collection forms,and facilitate an organised way of data presentation.

Sample checksheet showing defect type and corresponding shift in which each occurs,and its frequency

Benefits of Quality Circles

Rise Organizational moral Inspire more effective team work Promote Job involvement Create problem solving capabilities by

members of QC’s themselves Promote personal and leadership development Improve communication within the

organization Promote cost function Increase employee motivation

QC Allows benefits from Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)  - involvement of the

workforce in process improvement. Lean manufacture includes all of the following participative

concepts - SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies) and set up time reduction 5S/5C or CANDO. Autonomation (JIDOKA) - using single part production methods and

the Kanban approach. Root Cause Analysis. Poka Yoka (mistake proofing). Quality related Cost reduction. Flexible Work groups. Improved overall performance

Limitations and problems of QC

Lack of management commitment and support

Resistance by middle management Lack of clear objectives Unrealistic expectations for fast results Failure to get solutions implemented Inadequate training

QUALITY CIRCLE AT WORK

XEROX one of the most well known firms in the world has benefitted from it.Xerox reduced waste production by 65000 tonnes annually-with the help of Quality Circles.

United Airlines –one of the largest carriers in the USAQuality circles at UA helped tackle the issue of no-shows and sick leaves.Result: Sick leaves were down by 17% and UA could save 18.2 million dollars

QUALITY CIRCLE AT WORK(CONTD)•BHEL-’Navratna’ PSU one of the largest PSU’s in INDIA.•BHEL’s Tiruchirapalli Plant : A large heavy engineering units manufacturing boiler’s and an entire range of equipments required for a thermal power unit.•BHEL-pioneer in implementing QC’s in INDIA. Introduced it in 1981. Introduced in 1984 at the Tiruchirapalli Plant.Impact of Quality Circles in BHEL • Cohesive team work and team spirit. • Work itself is more enjoyable. • Improvement in interpersonal and intergroup relations. • Improvement in the quality of workmanship within the work group. • Greater and prompter response to suggestions given. • Attitudinal changes. • A greater sense of belonging to the group and the organization as a whole. • Positive approach. • Mutual trust.

QUALITY CIRCLE AT WORK(CONTD)•The positive impact at the plant lead to the encouragement of the QC concept •10% in crease in the number of Quality Circles at BHEL

HR AND QUALITY CIRCLEPHILOSOPHY OF QUALITY CIRCLEThe man on job more about its problem than anyone else.Every person is inherently talented and a conducive environment brings the best out People building is more important than people using The above statements clearly underscore the importance of the human element.•Various motivational theories like CHRIS ARGYRIS, FEDRICRICK HERZBERG’S THEORY , DOUGLAS Mc GREGOR’S THEORY, MASLOW’S THEORY OF HIERARCHY helps us understand the various needs of people.•QC Philosophy combines the various needs brought out transforms them into actual practice•Motivation, Participation and Recognition are the three major aspects of QC.

INTANGIBLE BENEFITS OF QUALITY CIRCLEDeveloping the ability of self expressionPersonal Growth resulting from long-term group educational activities.Greater self-confidence of supervisorsMember morale increaseLevel of self supervision improvesHelps develop ability to work in teams and appreciate other’s point of viewBetter exchange of ideas and improvement in communicationThe co-operative activities of the circle cement human relations. It facilitates the satisfaction of members self-esteem needs.The social need of human beings for belonging to a group is satisfied through QC activities.

Thank You