Guide to implement Quality circle in Organization

Quality circle is problem solving technique & human resource development technique. It is group of people consisting of 4-8 members doing similar type of work with free will & self-rule, meet to identify, analyze and solve work related problem.

Objective of Quality Circle: – To develop team spirit, self-development, improve organization culture, improve productivity and enhancing interest in Jobs. Overall QC will not benefit company but also develop employee

Structure of Quality Circle

In quality circle (QC) the constituents are Operators knows as potential members, Circle members (supervisors), Circle leader, Circle guide, Management – Facilitator, Senior management (CEO). All group members pick up common problem and work to solve this. You can understand structure of QC by below picture.

Function of Quality circle constituents

1. Top Management function: – Decide Policies, Guidelines, strategies, implementation & Review. Role is to motivate the winners with award.
2. Steering committee Function: – Monitoring group to guide, review & improve functioning of QC
3. Facilitator Function: – Generally, manager of area, whose role is to develop people working with him. He should be role model and value shaper. Followings are role responsibility of Facilitator:
   • Educate quality circle and encourage team.
   • Keep the circle activities on track.
   • Act as a link b/w circle and the organization.
   • Extend help whenever needed.
4. Leader function: – Leader is chosen by members of circle by consensus. Leader should be given adequate education and training to lead and develop leadership qualities and skills. Followings are role & responsibility of leader in QC:
   • Should have technical skills & high self disciplines
   • Quality control technique, should be friendly
   • Human relation /Social relation technique
   • Maintain record of circle activities
   • Prepare management presentation & involve all
5. Members Functions: – Members join these group on their own and must have full understanding of concept and philosophy of quality circle. Support the team for completion of tasks

Benefits of Quality Circle in Organization

Development of company:- Here QC act as problem solving technique, with properly oriented force of employees any problem can be solve which will beneficial for company in term of money and technology. 

Improvement of workplace:- QC increase scope of creativity and motivate employee doing the work beyond the assign work. This improve work area.

Employee as a team:– QC develop self esteem of development and develop team spirit. Since team strength is more than individual and When employee form a team then the results are great.

Important elements of QC

• Common purpose and goal: – To solve specific problem everyone understanding should be clear & common. Team should know what will be gain after doing this QC. Here gain should not consider only problem solution but also growth achieve in team members.
• Teamwork: – Better teamwork contain Mutual respect & corporation between members.
• Communication: – There should be open environment in which everyone can freely speak and enjoy the activity.

If anyone of the above element is missing, then there will be not QC activity. These are rules which need to follow by each member working for any QC.

Steps of Quality Circle

There are two way of understanding steps of Quality circle, Japanese Way & Full implementation way. Followings are steps of Quality circle explained as per PDCA sequence:

1. Identification of work related problem
2. Selection of problem through pareto chart
3. Define the problem (Use flow diagram)
4. Analyse the problem (data collection)
5. Identification of possible causes
6. Finding out root causes
7. Impact analysis of root causes
8. Developing solution
9. Foreseeing probable constraints
10. Trial implementation and feedback
11. Full implementation
12. Follow up + review & evaluation + Horizontal deployment

Understanding each step of Quality circle

1st activity Is problem identification: For problem identification we can do brainstorming. Team need to generate high volume of ideas on any topic. Leader will ask the members to think and write problem existing in their work area. Collect and write all problems on board and then categories into A, B and C type of problem. But if we are monitoring all defects and problems on online portal or on the check sheets, then we can take idea from there by using pareto chart method.

Theme selection in Quality Circle

2nd activity Is problem selection / Theme selection: As explained in previous activity, problem selection can be done using pareto chart. But for theme selection we can use NGT (Nominal group technique) in Quality circle. Here we already have completed the list of problems, and all participants have written their problem statement with ranking on the board. Then combine the ranking and take the highest & lowest one as priority. You can understand by below picture.

Group members have to think about problem coming in work area. Make list of all suggestion coming from members and write down on board, eliminate common idea and summarized the final list of problem on board. Categories as A B C from list. Leader will write rank against each problem given by group member. Selection can be done based upon highest and lowest rank on problem.

Problem analysis and root cause finding

3rd activity Is Define the problem:  To define the problem we have to use process flow and have to address the problematic process in flow diagram. Problem definition should be clear and easy to  understand. We can use 5W2H method for definition. What, when, where, who , why & How & how much can be mention in defining the problem. But its better if we keep problem description in short.

4th activity Is Analyse the problem:  Here analysis could be initial finding in problem. To define the problem area we need to do data collection and show target setting. Data collection could be taken from check sheets, online portal and feedback from customer end. After this we have to analyse the problem for that we can use tools like- cause and effect diagram, Graphs, control charts, Histogram, etc.

5th activity is Identify the causes: For causes identification we can use fish bone diagram, FTA analysis. Here list out possible causes and check result against each cause.

6th Activity is find out root cause:– Here we use funnel based approach to get the root cause of problem. As we have completed FTA (Fault tree analysis) and have identified all possible causes of problem, next we need to convert possible causes into valid causes. For that we will do simulation trials for problem confirmation. After finding the valid cause we then use 5 why approach, Investigate answer of 5 why. Which will give root cause of problem.

Way forward to implement countermeasure

7th Activity is Impact analysis:-  This is not necessary activity to perform. It is used for complex problem analysis. When there are multiple root causes of problem then effect of all causes could not be same for product quality, we need to find top root cause then.

8^th Activity is Find out the solution:-  Solution of problem come from ideas generated during brainstorming. Well we have root cause of problem, to solve that problem we have to take countermeasure over root cause. After effective brainstorming, each idea of group member is pasted on board then cluster of common idea is selected as countermeasure. Next we have to make action plan of implementation.

Potential constraint in Quality Circle

9^th  Activity is Foreseeing probable constraint:-  Now we have action plan to implement countermeasure. Here following are constraint  could come between team members:

• Tooling related problem
• Poor training
• Domineering attitude of few members
• Expecting quick results
• Lack of basic facilities
• Lack of mutual support among the members
• Failure to give feedback information
• Resistance toward change implementation

10^th Activity is Trial implementation:-  After completing countermeasure, make proto and check success result. If OK move to next step if not OK recheck countermeasure. Share the finding from trial implementation with seniors.

Horizontal deployment plan of Countermeasure

11^th Activity is  Full scale implementation-  If trial go OK with successful result then we have to do full scale implementation. Here we can use Principle of Horenso. Full scale implementation is using countermeasure in mass production.

• Hokoku- Report
• Renraku-Contact
• Sodan- Discuss

12th Activity is Review and Horizontal deployment- The good result achieved must be horizontally deployed to other similar work area. Monitor the result and report the benefits to the management.

Successful Management tips for QC

Following are tips for successful Quality Circle:

1. Goal Clarity
2. Voluntariness
3. Team spirit
4. Mutual Enlightenment
5. All members participation
6. Knowledge & Utilization of Techniques (Brainstorming + 5W2H)
7. Focus on Own shop
8. Awareness on problems in area
9. Innovative efforts for improvement
10. Activation & support for QC activities

What should be in QC presentation?

Further Evaluation of QC presentation is done as per check sheet.

Conclusion

Quality circle is grass root activity or technique to solve any problem coming in workspace. With Quality circle activity any organization can reduce problem also can develop employee about technical skills. This is innovative and create approach to solve and present success story of Quality circle.  Around 12 steps are followed for full implementation of Quality circle. In structure of quality circle, leader is important pillar along with circle members. Quality circle is always praised by senior managements. Successful QC story add technology learning and know how in organization bucket.

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