Quality Circle- A way to Quality Improvement INTRODUCTION Quality Circle is one of the employee participation methods.

It implies the development of skills, capabilities, confidence and creativity of the people through cumulative process of education, training, work experience and participation. It also implies the creation of facilitative conditions and environment of work, which creates and sustains their motivation and commitment towards work excellence. Quality Circles have emerged as a mechanism to develop and utilize the tremendous potential of people for improvement in product quality and productivity. GENESIS OF QUALITY CIRCLES After the Second World War Japanese economy was in the doldrums. Seeing this disastrous effect of war, Americans decided to help Japan in improving the quality standards of their products. General Douglas Mac Arthur who, at that time, was the commander of the occupational forces in Japan took up the task of imparting quality awareness among Japanese to help them improve their products and the reliability of manufacturing systems including men, machine and materials. Thus, by 1975, they were topping the world in quality and productivity. This astonishing and unique achievement in modern history became an eye opener to the world. Industrialists and politicians from all over the world started visiting Japan to know how they have achieved such magical results in such a short span. The answer to this was painstaking and persevering efforts of the Japanese leaders and workers and the development and growth of the philosophy of small working groups. This resulted in the Quality Circle concept being accepted all over the world as a very effective technique to improve the total quality of work life. DEFINITION Quality Circle is a small group of 6 to 12 employees doing similar work who voluntarily meet together on a regular basis to identify improvements in their respective work areas using proven techniques for analysing and solving work related problems coming in the way of achieving and sustaining excellence leading to mutual upliftment of employees as well as the organisation. It is "a way of capturing the creative and innovative power that lies within the work force". PHILOSOPHY Quality Circles is a people building philosophy, providing self-motivation and happiness in improving environment without any compulsion or monetary benefits. 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 peoples capabilities are looked upon as assets to solve workarea problems. The Quality Circle philosophy calls for a progressive attitude on the part of the management and their willingness to make adjustments, if necessary, in their style and culture. If workers are prepared to contribute their ideas, the management must be willing to create a congenial environment to encourage them to do so.

CONCEPT The concept of Quality Circle is primarily based upon recognition of the value of the worker as a human being, as someone who willingly activises on his job, his wisdom, intelligence, experience, attitude and feelings. It is based upon the human resource management considered as one of the key factors in the improvement of product quality & productivity. Quality Circle concept has three major attributes: a. Quality Circle is a form of participation management. b. Quality Circle is a human resource development technique. c. Quality Circle is a problem solving technique. OBJECTIVE The objectives of Quality Circles are multi-faced. a) Change in Attitude. From "I dont care" to "I do care" Continuous improvement in quality of work life through humanisation of work.

b) Self Development
Bring out Hidden Potential of people People get to learn additional skills. c) Development of Team Spirit Individual Vs Team "I could not do but we did it" Eliminate inter departmental conflicts. d) Improved Organisational Culture Positive working environment. Total involvement of people at all levels. Higher motivational level. Participate Management process. ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE A Quality Circle has an appropriate organisational structure for its effective and efficient performance. It varies from industry to industry, organisation to organisation. But it is useful to have a basic framework as a model. The structure of a Quality Circle consists of the following elements.

i.

ii. iii. iv. v.

A steering committee: This is at the top of the structure. It is headed by a senior executive and includes representatives from the top management personnel and human resources development people. It establishes policy, plans and directs the program and meets usually once in a month. Co-ordinator: He may be a Personnel or Administrative officer who co-ordinates and supervises the work of the facilitators and administers the programme. Facilitator: He may be a senior supervisory officer. He co-ordiates the works of several quality circles through the Circle leaders. Circle leader: Leaders may be from lowest level workers or Supervisors. A Circle leader organises and conducts Circle activities. Circle members : They may be staff workers. Without circle members the porgramme cannot exist. They are the lifeblood of quality circles. They should attend all meetings as far as possible, offer suggestions and ideas, participate actively in group process, take training seriously with a receptive [Link] roles of Steering Committee, Co0rdinator, Facilitator, Circle leader and Circle members are well defined.

LAUNCHING QUALITY CIRCLES The major prerequisite for initiating Quality Circles in any organisation is the total understanding of, as well as complete conviction and faith in the participative philosophy, on the part of the top and senior management. In the absence of a commitment from the Chief Executive to support the Quality Circle movement totally, it would be inadvisable to seriously attempt the starting of Quality Circles. The launching of Quality Circles involves the following steps: Expose middle level executives to the concept. Explain the concept to the employees and invite them to volunteer as members of Quality Circles. Nominate senior officers as facilitators. Form a steering committee. Arrange training of co-ordinators, facilitators in basics of Quality Circle approach, implementation, techniques and operation. Later facilitator may provide training to Circle leaders and Circle members. A meeting should be fixed preferably one hour a week for the Quality Circle to meet. Formally inaugurate the Quality Circle. Arrange the necessary facilities for the Quality Circle meeting and its operation. TRAINING Appropriate training for different sections of employees needs to be imparted. Without a proper understanding of the real concept of Quality Circles, both the workers and management might look at this philosophy with suspicion. Each group should know beforehand the commitments and implications involved as well as the benefit that can be obtained from Quality Circles. Such training comprises of : Brief orientation programme for top management. Programme for middle level executives. Training of facilitators. Training for Circle leaders and members. PROCESS OF OPERATION The operation of quality circles involves a set of sequential steps as under:

1 Problem identification: Identify a number of problems. 2 Problem selection : Decide the priority and select the problem to be taken up first. 3 Problem Analysis : Problem is clarified and analysed by basic problem solving methods. 4 Generate alternative solutions : Identify and evaluate causes and generate number of possible alternative solutions. 5 Select the most appropriate solution : Discuss and evaluate the alternative solutions by comparison in terms of investment and return from the investment. This enables to select the most appropriate solution. 6 Prepare plan of action : Prepare plan of action for converting the solution into reality which includes the considerations "who, what, when, where, why and how" of solving problems. 7 Present solution to management circle members present solution to management fore approval. 8. Implementation of solution : The management evaluates the recommended solution. Then it is tested and if successful, implemented on a full scale.

BASIC PROBLEM SOLVING TECHNIQUES The following techniques are most commonly used to analyse and solve work related problems. 1 Brain storming 2 Pareto Diagrams 3 Cause & Effect Analysis 4 Data Collection 5 Data Analysis The tools used for data analysis are : 1 Tables 2 Bar Charts 3 Histograms 4 Circle graphs 5 Line graphs 6 Scattergrams 7 Control Charts The Quality Circles also are expected to develop internal leadership, reinforce worker morale and motivation, and encourage a strong sense of teamwork in an organisation. A variety of benefits have been attributed to Quality Circles, including higher quality, improved productivity, greater upward flow of information, broader improved worker attitudes, job enrichment, and greater teamwork. Problem quality circles often suffer from unrealistic expectations for fast results, lock of management commitment and support, resistance by middle management, resentment by non participants, inadequate training, lack of clear objectives and failure to get solutions implemented. BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS OF QUALITY CIRCLES It took more than two decades for the quality control concept to get acceptance in India, after its introduction in Japan. This may be due to the differences in the industrial context in the two countries. Japan needed it for its survival in a competitive market. India had a reasonably protected, sellers market, with consequent lethargy towards efforts to improve quality and productivity. However, with the policy of liberalisation of economy and privatisation of infrastructure development, contexts changed. The concept now needs to be looked upon as a necessity.