Quality Circle Activity Study Report

QUALITY CIRCLE ACTIVITY AND

GOOD APPLICATIONs

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LUONG Huu Loc

Student ID 12415275

        Quality circle originated from Japanese management and techniques, which was introduced in the post-war years. "A quality circle is a participatory management technique that enlists the help of employees in solving problems related to their own jobs" (INC, n.d.). In other words, it is a volunteer group of employees who are trained to identify, analyze, solve work-related problems and present their solutions to management. In many other sources, this technique is also referred as one part of "Kaizen" philosophy (kaizen means improvement in Japanese).

        A quality circle can enhance relatively cooperative relations of labor-management in a decentralized and enterprise-oriented system. It takes advantages of participation in company matters of production workers while management still benefits from worker's intimate knowledge of the production process. This technique helps moving quality control to an earlier step in the production process. Instead of relying upon inspections after production to identify mistakes and errors, quality circles are used in attempting to prevent defects from occurring in the first place. As a result, scrap materials and downtime of machine that formerly occurred would be minimized.[pic 2][pic 3]

In the book Quality Beyond Six Sigma by Ron Basu and J. Nevan Wright, specified seven requirements for a successful implementation of quality controls are summarized as below:

1. Only volunteers participate in quality circles.
2. Participants should be from different functional activities.
3. The problems to be discussed should only be chosen by the quality circle rather than managing council even if those problems do not show clear evidence in business goals.
4. The quality circle should receive support from management and be funded appropriately.
5. Participants must be trained in identifying, analyzing and solving problems.
6. Leaders must be chosen from within members in the circle.
7. A manager from management must be appointed as a mentor helping the circle rather than manage the circle.

        A good example of implementing quality circle is the case of Lockheed Martin aerospace manufacturer. Starting with interest in Japanese quality control in the early 1970s, Lockheed conducted a trip to Japanese industrial plants. This visit resulted in the gradual establishment of quality circles in its factories beginning in 1974. Within two years, Lockheed estimated that the implementation of 15 quality circles helped saving around 3 million dollars. (Dutta, 2015). Another illustration for putting quality circle into effect is India. Quality circles have been mentioned for the first time in this country in 1980 and were applied in 1981, as a pilot program by Bharat Heavy Limited. At first, there were only 5 circles established, however, they played an important role in eliminating biggest problems of this company including: multilingualism; low level of education; lack of feeling that the employees are part of the organization; and strong exchange associations, which fear for the decline of their power. After this success, the number of newly established circles has been increased to more than 1800 members around the country in 2013, which is the basis for establishment of the QCFI - Quality Circle Forum of India (Syla & Rexhepi, 2013).