Q 375. Quality Circles were originally described by Deming and made popular by Ishikawa. What is a Quality Circle? Is this concept still relevant in Organizations practicing Lean Six Sigma? Why/ Why not?

 

 

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A quality circle is a team connect where all employees working in the team doing similar set of activities to identify, analyze and solve process problems. Typically, a team leader or Black Belt facilitate the discussion for the issues highlighted by teams and find solutions to improve.  A quality circle in a service industry is largely focused on how we can reduce the errors in the process, how we can reduce the waiting time in the process, how the overall Turnaround Time(TAT) be improved?  How teams can be cross skilled, how work can be scheduled for effective utilization, small automations which makes activities simpler, leaner and automated.

 

Quality Circles are still relevant in the organizations which are practicing Lean Six Sigma.  When staff is trained on Lean Six Sigma concept, they know how they should be seeing the problems in the process.  While ideas can be free flowing and as in when they have, they will work with Black Belt to implement.  But in the present times organizations have innovation tools to drive tracking of these ideas where every idea goes through a cycle.  But implementing a tool may not drive the timely closure of ideas and dissemination of best practice to everyone.  Quality circle becomes important as every idea, every implementation is brainstormed before implementation.  The idea gets enriched and has better utility and adaptation.   

 

Very recently in one of the teams in my organization where we had a innovation portal but ideas were not getting moved from one stage to the other.  We introduced Quality Circle where all team members and innovation teams came together every week for one hour to discuss these ideas, issues encountered by the team.  This helped in getting timely closure of ideas at the same time enrichment of ideas for scaling them up.

A quality circle is a group of people who do the same or similar work, meet regularly to identify, analyze and solve the work-related problems. Quality circle is a people building philosophy based on the fact  that an employee doing a particular job is biggest expert of that field and thus is in a better position to identify, analyze and resolve the work related problems through their ideas. In reality, Quality Circle is a practical application of McGregor’s theory ‘Y’ which says that people enjoy and take pride in their work if they are given the right environment with a decision making power.

Generally, It consists of minimum 3 and maximum 12 members in number. Quality Circle Groups are usually small in numbers and led by a supervisor or manager and they present solutions to management and also implement the solutions themselves to improve the performance of the organization and also to motivate the employees across the organization. These groups were most popular in 1980s but today also such groups exists in the form of Kaizen Groups etc.

Typical areas of interest for Quality Circle members are improvement in Product design, Processes, Occupational Health and Safety and workspaces etc. These are the formal groups in organization who meet regularly to discuss the problems and they are by competent people and Industry experts in problem identification, analysis, basic statistics and solving the problem in a structured way.

 

 

Origin of Concept : The foundation of this concept was put in by Dr. W. Edward Deming during his working with Allied Occupation of Japan in 1950s and then Professor Kaoru Ishikawa built upon the work done by Deming and defined this term in detail in his book “What is Total Quality Control ? The Japanese Way” and later on it was circulated across the Japanese Industry by JUSE (Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers) in 1960. Nippon Wireless and Telegraph was the 1^st Japanese company to deploy the Quality Circle concept in 1962.

 

Key Elements of Quality Circles :

 

 

Mechanism of Quality Circle :

 

Do Quality Circles Exist Today as well ?

 

Yes, Concept of Quality Circles exist even today (though the wave was more prevalent in 1960s and 1980s) as it’s a philosophy that uses the wisdom of the people on Ground to solve the problems. In Manufacturing Sector, the knowledge and experience of people on ground or at Gemba like operators and workers, foreman and line managers is used to get an idea and same is considered in problem solving / arriving at the final solution as they are the best judge or witness of the problem happening at the ground day in and day out and their thoughts must be given considerable importance even if we are using other techniques like Six Sigma / Lean (Lean also Focus on importance of Gemba / Genchi Genbustu). Normally in Morning / Evening meetings with the workers, this approach is promoted and asked to look at the problems with the help of 7 QC tools and training is also given in line with that.

 

In Service Sector as well, people on Ground discuss the problems in huddles, team meetings and work together to fix the same at ground level. Though the concept is not so formal in Services Industry but initiatives (Like Idea generation / A3 / Kaizen / SPS / Lean Workshops / Solution Programme / Hackathons / War on Errors / Power of Zero etc.) are taken in the organizations and participation from people on ground is encouraged in solving the problems as small – 2 ideas sometimes cause big improvements at the organization level. In Agile way of working also, development team is given the total ownership for development of the softwares guided by the Product Owner and this development team acts as a Quality Circle Only (<10 members team) and this team acts in a self organized way, solve problems with collective wisdom and take decisions independently keeping Product Owner in loop  to improve the product quality.

 

Companies where this Concept is  working : BHEL, Kirloskar Oil Engines, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, HMT, Maruti, Modi Xerox. SBI, Hindustan Aluminum, Modi Rubber, TELCO, LUCAS-TVS, etc.

Edited June 19, 20214 yr by RahulGarg
Additional Details

A quality circle or quality control circle is a group of workers who doing similar work, voluntarily meet together on a regular basis to identify improvements in their respective work areas using proven techniques for analyzing and solving work related problems for achieving and sustaining excellence leading to mutual upliftment of employees as well as the organization

 

Quality Circles Characteristics :

1. It is a method of continuous quality improvement by direct involvement of employees in quality
2. Operate on the basic principle to drive employee participation in decision making and problem solving improves the quality of work 
3. Voluntary group of persons and the group consists of three to twelve members in number. 
4. Meet on regular basis and work on similar tasks
5. Share area of responsibility and solve problems related to work

History :

• Quality Circles have been around for approx. 60 years.
• It was suggested by W. Edwards Deming in Japan during the 1950’s, which became active in the early 1960’s in Japan.
• In 1960, Kaoru Ishikawa and the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers introduced the Quality Circle concept and flourished in Japan
• By 1974, it was picked up by the United States when Lockheed introduced Quality Circles
• In India Quality Circles is promoted by QCFI - Quality Circle Forum of India and was introduced initially into the healthcare arena. 

 

 

Quality Circle Tools

• Ishikawa Diagram displays hierarchies of causes contributing to a problem
• The Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule, analyses different causes by frequency to illustrate the vital cause
• PDCA or Deming wheel describes as Plan, Do, Check, Act, as described by W. Edwards Deming PDCAW. 

Relevance of quality circles where there is scope for group based solution for work related problems 

• Manufacturing firms
• Factories
• Firms
• Schools
• Hospitals
• Universities & Banks

Quality Circle

 

A Quality Circle is group of people doing similar work in the industry and meet regularly for the problems in routine job. This group identify the problem, analyze them and come up with a solution and solve the problem. Quality circle generally consists of three to twelve members and can be led by supervisor or immediate manager.

 

 

Quality circle has a certain drawbacks:

• Management commitment: In the current organization culture, top management is not committed towards quality circle. Practical implementation of quality circle can be difficult because of this.
• Lack of Training: The workers may not be equipped with enough knowledge and also lack of leadership may further make it difficult.
• Lack of appreciation/implementation: Due to absence of proper leadership and management commitment, the solution suggested by this group may not always be implemented and appreciated.
• Lack of Support: There may be lack of support towards quality circle by workers or supervisor/managers.

 

 

Because of these drawbacks, quality circle may not be very much popular in current industry environments but if these drawbacks can be managed successfully, the quality circle if very powerful tool to resolve small but significant shop floor problems in less time and very little investment.

 

This concept is still relevant in the organizations practicing Lean Six Sigma as:

• It produces good solutions to critical organizational problems. A quality circle always has the potential of making an important contribution to organizational performance.
• KAIZEN and continuous improvement activates can be very easily driven from quality circles.

 

 

In summary, Quality Circles may have few drawbacks but if successfully implemented, is a most obvious problem solving tool. It provides an opportunity to the workers to be active part of improvement activities with their creativity, experience and knowledge.

 

Quality circles was introduced by Kaoru Ishikawa also known as “Father of Quality Circle”

 

Quality circle is where small group of employees that meet regularly to plan and carry out process changes to improve quality.

 

In other words, these Quality circles were empowering employees for open communication to identify, analyze and solve problems.

 

Recently, organizations have adopted various techniques to solve the business problems and we always hear that Lean Six Sigma has become outdated. However, we will have to be aware that Lean Six Sigma is still a successful approach and only thing we may experience the difference in the approach. May be not an end to end approach like DMAIC, DFSS rather we keep using the different tools wherever applicable in our projects

 

Similarly, Quality circles. In most of the organization Quality circles have fine tuned the approach to suit their needs.

 

Concept is practiced across industry, but we hear out with different program names.

 

Before we talk about relevance of the concept, Lets understand the characteristics of Quality circle:

 

The problem-solving groups who connect in the Quality circles often have authority to make and implement decisions that affect their area of work.

 

In general, Quality circles follow PDCA cycle for continuous improvement projects

PDCA: The Plan, Do, Check, Act process

 

These are good examples of large organizations using quality circles. Below are some examples on how a typical quality circles can provide benefits to the workplace.

• Pointing Out Issues - Employees often know of lots of minor and major issues, but they assume that someone else is working on getting them fixed. When a quality circle meets, they can discuss these types of issues, and take ownership of them to move forward with a positive result.
• Collaborating on Solutions - One of the biggest examples of how a quality circle can help is that it is the actual employees who are working to come up with solutions to problems. Those who deal with the problems are typically the best people to fix it.
• Brainstorming Ideas – In a Quality circle meets, everyone will be familiar with the position so they can more easily propose their ideas to each other. Brainstorming ideas is a great technique to arrive at the best possible solution to a problem

Quality circle tools:

Quality circle can us any type of the tools to improve their roles. Some of the tools are used to discover the root cause of the issues and how to fix them

• Flowcharts
• Scatter Plots
• Run Charts
• Graphical Tools
• Process Mapping Tools
• Pareto Charts
• Fishbone Diagrams

 

Example of alternative Quality circle approach:

We know that industry has adopted various quality methodologies and one among them is ACE (Achieving competitive Excellence) from UTC organizations. Where these Quality circles are named as Quality Clinics.

·       Quality clinics is to encourage groups for open communication around quality issues

·       Quality clinics analyze product and process nonconformance, determine root causes and ensure changes to the standard work is in place

·       Real time triage investigations performed

 

Overall Quality circle is used in every organizations but in a different means.

 

 

Quality Circle is also coined as Quality control circle  which is participatory management technique where small circles are formulated who meet up periodically to evaluate the Quality or to solve the problem at hand.  The concept came into picture in 1950 and later formalised in 1962 & then widely propagated and further structured by Kaoru Ishikawa.

The Quality Circle had 4 steps to identify & solve a problem  Plan- Do- Check -Act

The concept is existing now with Kaizen and Six Sigma methodologies , as Quality circle have the advantage of continuity & the circle remains intact from project to project 
 

The Quality circle used 7 quality tools which are even now in use and helps understand RCAs better and help control and improve Quality

Ex : Cause & Effect diagram, Pareto charts. Process Mapping , Graphical tools ( Histogram, frequency diagram, pie charts), Run Charts & Control charts, Scatter plots , Correlation , Flow charts 

As the aspects of Six Sigma would be Define, Measure, Analyse , Improve, Control for any gaps identified in the existing process & thereby fixation , recovery & control, Likewise from a Quality circle prerogative , now we have separate Process management, Process excellence teams who evaluate quality time to time & thereby try to run simulation and help business to improve efficiency .

Few Advantages of Quality Circle 

1. Detection of Quality Deviation  2. Acceptance by Customers  3. Timely delivery 4. Improve productivity

 

Hence the concept is even relevant now !!

 

Quality circle is a group of working staffs (includes people from Management, Quality leaders, Quality members, operations etc.) which provide resolutions of problems, works on development of process and organization. It originated in Japan in 1960s by Mr. Ishikawa.

This group uses various tools to provide solutions like 7 QC tools, Which FCHCPCS (flow chart, check sheets, histogram, cause and effect, Pareto chart, control charts and stratification) and other six sigma tools also.

Major Advantages of using Quality circles are productivity, team spirit, morale, new potential utilization etc.

It is still relevant in organizations practicing Lean six sigma because of above mentioned points.

 

Quality Circle is a group of workers doing the same or similar work, meeting periodically to identify, analyze and solve work-related problems. The meeting participation is voluntary and happening in the work hours, and this group consists of three to twelve members. The Quality circle team members submit and explain their improvement solutions to management. 

 

This concept is relevant to Organizations those who practicing Lean Six Sigma in company wide, due to this concept organization gets following advantages, 
Promotion of teamwork
Develops employee positive attitudes
Positive working environment
Increased quality and productivity

 

If the organization is not fully committed for doing proper training on Lean six sigma and lagging in implementation, the organization may feel following disadvantages,
Employees not sure of the purpose
Not enough relevant training
Participation not voluntary
Little or no management support
Quality Circles are not empowered to make decisions

Quality Circles suggested by W. Edwards Deming in Japan in1950’s, they became active in the early 1960’s in Japan.

In 1960, Kaoru Ishikawa and the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers presented the Quality Circle concept. It reached the United States when Lockheed introduced Quality Circles in 1974.

The Quality Circle refers to the set of individuals who meet on a regular interval to discuss the work-related problems. The quality circles are small in group which is led by the manager or the supervisor who presents the solutions to the management.

The purpose of this Quality circle is to motivate employees to voice out their problems which is affecting their work area.  Help them to improve the performance as well as the organization as a whole. Mostly the focus will be on Occupational health, safety, improvement in the working environment and manufacturing process.

 

The size of the quality circle will be six to twelve employees from the same work area come together to form these circles. These employees receive good training in problem solving, group process and statistical processes

Quality circles are formed to fulfil the following.

·        Contribute towards the organization growth.

·        Provide healthy work environment for the employees

·        Explore the hidden strength of the individuals and depict the infinite opportunities.

·        Improve the product quality as well as the productivity of the organization.

·        Improve the team skills, Confidence, Capabilities, and Creativity through trainings and participation of volunteers in the circles.

 

Quality Circle concept still relevant in Organizations practicing Lean Six Sigma?

 

In fact not much as per my opinion. Quality Circles is a TQM (Total Quality Management) concept. Quality Circle contains representatives from all the departments who communicates the Quality problems to the organization to resolve the same. It is an old concept, because only members of Quality Circle will participate and discuss about issues and improving the Quality Process. Only higher management members of QC can take decisions.

In Six Sigma, unlike TQM, even the employee at the every level of the organization can participate as team members in the Six-Sigma projects in improving the quality process. There is no hierarchy or designations can take decisions.

Advantage is that the employee who is actually doing the job is involved in the process improvement and obviously no one knows the process better than him.

Six-Sigma is more focused on a particular issue or pain area that needs to be addressed and resolved immediately whereas TQM quality circle focus more on the positive improvement in quality, but by how much it never says.. Six-Sigma is known to deliver better and effective results as compared to total quality management

Quality Circles: A group of team members who do the same or similar kind of work get together and identify few issues/ concerns and deliberate together on the probable improvements and development.

 

This can be adopted across organization, people on job are the one’s knows the techniques to manage and improve the quality and this will build in a philosophy. The one who is on job is the most trained person to bring improvements provided they take sometime out to sit back and understand the day to day issues, identify the concern areas, analyze and find resolution to the problems through simple, innovative and unique ideas.

 

Yes, it is very much relevant even today in the organization: One such framework that was implemented in IT infrastructure services is provided below.

 

We created a governance mechanism to ensure that the ideas are logged, tracked till their completion. We clubbed it with the organization roles to enable the small group employees to work together to identify the related problems and they are arriving at the improvement and where required we have the seniors/supervisors and required support team assistance for the completion.

 

In this framework we came across of self-motivated who were limited number met frequently with their own interest to identify areas of improvement at a periodic interval arrived at action items and reported the status of the same with their supervisor. The status update was presented with and probable solutions which were arrived with detailed analysis such as severity of the problem, urgency of the problem, and frequency of the occurrence.

 

Supervisor  would evaluate each of these solutions vs problem and take it up to the management to get the necessary  approvals on investments, change management and  consensus for implementing the solutions.

 

I remember those days with my colleagues when we implemented this and it was a huge hit because everyone could relate to it as it went well with the organization structure. And it also got the traction as there was rewards and recognition associated with it along with the strong governance model.

 

Since quality circle is more a voluntary activity it can die if it does not get the management support. 

 

 

An Agile organization is very similar to the quality circles in my view. There can be improvements identified with in Chapter, Tribes and squad.

 

Quality circles and agile sprints both work towards coming up with best solution. There is a cross functional team approach for quality circles, and we see the same with mix of roles coming together in sprints to achieve a common objective and bring in improvements sprints after sprints

 

 

In agile organizations we do see self- motivated individuals and self organized teams who are empowered to come together by their supervisors to solve business problems. There is so much of similarity in the way quality circles relates with Agile.

 

In both the approaches we see the focus is on customer and organization objectives.

 

The concept of quality circle is not time bound, it will be applicable across times, we may use different names to make it relevant as per need.

It can be called in various names and adopted in different forms but the spirit of it remains the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its called Quality circle or Quality of Circle and its simply a participation  management technique to manage and  enhance the Quality of the entire organisation

 

The best part of Quality Circle concept is that it induces mutual trust between managers and employees which leads to bilateral contribution leading to achieving goals with mutual understanding

 

The significant objective of forming a  Quality Circle is to create a bond of   good relationship with employees, and with that the employees will exhibit  more interest and dedication towards which leads to enhancement in quality , productivity and cost reduction their work devotion

 

As first instance Quality circles was conceived by Mr Kaoru Ishikawa and he used the terms Quality of circle in 1985

 

Even psychological surveys express and endorse that Employees  exhibit  more loyalty and devotion to their organisation if they are allowed to participate openly and engage themselves with others to define and solve the problems related to quality and or performance related objectives

 

Generally it’s a group of 3 to 10 people and the most interesting part is that the employees voluntarily participate in Quality Circle and meet regularly to discuss the issues and resolve and its important that the participants are moderated and to make sure that they have the correct

 

Quality circles offer employees the opportunity to use all their experience, knowledge and creativity to bring improvement into their activities.

 

By deploying this concept employees are able to convert their long standing  challenging problems into great opportunities with derived  solutions which they have discovered  themselves. Its also interesting to note employees are free to choose the topics or issues in the quality circles

 

Few of the very famous subjects are related to health , safety at work while maintaining productivity and ensuring proper product design

 

Few very interesting elements of Quality circle concept is that the ambience that is maintained as peaceful and thus employees are able to have good mood to think and contribute in the sessions and another important part is that every employee needs to have his turn of contribution to express in the meeting which creates more sense of identity and attachment with the organisation as they feel important and heard while maintaining transparency and mutual respect to one another in the team  .

 

To truly do quality circles justice, it is important to meet several conditions. In the first place, the mood needs to be relaxed. People need to feel comfortable and be free to share their own opinion.

 

Every member of the quality circle also needs to get their turn. This is the only way for employees to feel involved and be interested, which will motivate them to contribute. There is also a need to determine a clear goal, so everyone knows what is expected of them.

 

People need to be open to each other’s point of view and listen to all opinions. If an action emerges, clear agreements must be made that are accepted by all employees.

 

An organisation should go for Quality Circles technique : Yes or No

 

Yes only if the organisation is in its matured form and the top management has the let go off silly things and focus on end result approach 

 

No if the team can not be moderated form day one of formation and clear hand holding given and otherwise the freedom aspects and hierarchy free arrangement may lead to misuse and also side-line main administration channel

Quality circles (QC)have been around for more than six decades now and this idea was coined by W. Edwards Deming in 1950 in Japan, and was further explored and instutionalized by Kaoru Ishikawa in 1960’s. In US, quality circles started with Lockheed in 1974, and is been widely used since. 

 

Quality circles can be defined as a group of motivated and committed individuals working in the same departments/organizations, who meet regularly to identify, analyse and find solutions for their most pressing work related problems.

Quality circles are not just limited to identifying solutions for the problems in the organizations, however they actively participate in solution deployment, which in-turn improves employee motivation and satisfaction to see their ideas coming to life.

 

There is no denial that quality circles indeed comes with lot of advantages to the organizations if they are implemented and maintained properly. Quality circles promote team work, encourage employees to participate and actively contribute to the organizations strategy, as the ideation and implementation are employee driven. 

 

However, it is argued that Quality circles are usually a short term trend and are do not stay popular for long time. This is due to the various bottlenecks,i.e. organization culture, training provided to employees to undertake and run quality circles, authority given to the quality circle to implement ideas/suggestions, organisation performance improvement is not directly correlated and shared with employees etc.

 

Another contrasting reason why quality circles don’t succeed is due the parallel organizational structure they create. QC’s usually operate independently, and may be a bit different from the organizational culture. The emphasis is given to ensuring that the quality circles deliver faster results, and everyone has to contribute. There is also management intervention in what ideas should be promoted and what should not go forward. This long handed approach from management, also limits the quality circles from better engagement.

 

Introduction of powerful Lean and Six sigma practices have also diminished the use of Quality circles effectively, as organization move towards a focused project driven approach. In this case, the accountabilities and responsibilities are well established with the project owner and results can be measured. In quality circles, the accountability is usually not directed towards an individual, and it is possible that the quality circles are unable to come up with strong solutions.

 

Nevertheless, similar to any organization change, if quality circles are well planned and deployed with the right intention, they will indeed succeed. To develop  effective quality circle program, the leadership should be committed and provide the right support to the quality circles to work.

 

Quality circles were originally described by W. Edwarda Deming in 1950’s. Deming had praised Toyota as an example of this practice. Later, this idea was formalized across Japan in 1962 and expanded by the others such as Kaoru Ishikawa.

Quality circles are described as small groups of 5 to 8 employees, doing similar work who meet regularly & voluntarily to identify, analyse & resolve the work/ project related problems.

Each team member of this small group participates in activities, utilizing problem solving techniques to achieve improvements in the project and also to help themselves & team members in mutual development in the process.

The concept of “Quality circle” is based on the ‘respect for individual humans’ as against the traditional assumption of mistrust & suspicion between team and management. The premise of these is based on the fact that people who do certain jobs everyday know more about it than anyone else and hence their involvement is the best way to solve the work related problems.

Key characteristics of Effective quality circles are:

1.       People must participate

2.       The atmosphere for these should be kept informal & comfortable.

3.       The objective should be set clearly to all members

4.       The members must listen to each other

5.       The decisions should be with everyone’s consensus

6.       For any action, the clear assignment of tasks should be there & accepted by members

7.       There should be no leader who dominate the group

8.       Feedback is important until a final solution is found

 

Benefits of Quality Circles (Q.C):

·       Q.C can help resolve certain chronic problems of an organization which creates frequent hurdles

·       A QC is a capable work force which can undertake any difficult & challenging assignments that an organization might undertake

·       Increased team work

·       Smooth working

·       Better mutual trust

·       Improved quality

·       Increase in productivity

·       Cost Reduction

·       Greater sense of belongingness in work groups

 

 

QC use the below seven basic Quality improvement tools:

1.       Cause & effect diagram / Ishikawa / Fishbone

2.       Pareto charts

3.       Process mapping & data gathering tools like check sheets

4.       Histograms, Spot charts & pie charts

5.       Run charts, Control Charts

6.       Scatter plots & correlation analysis, and

7.       Flowcharts

 

 Is this concept still relevant in Organizations practicing Lean Six Sigma? Why/ Why not?

The concept of Quality circles is still in practice in the form of Kaizen & similar worker participation schemes in most organization. As the tools used by QC are still prevalent and used by organization practicing Lean Six Sigma.

The Agile approach also has similarities to the Quality circles. The values & principles behind Agile aren’t all that new. They did emerge in the early days of Lean, Kaizen, QC & process redesign. The approach, roles & the objective seems like Agile is a twin of QC Listing below similarities:

Mix of roles in the team: QC has a mix skill & roles of members without hierarchy. An Agile team consists of the mix of skills based on sprint focus. Hierarchy is not important and various roles participate & work towards a team outcome.

Single Focus:

QC’s had single focus to find ways to improve quality. Agile sprints also have a single focus to find the best solution under a specific sprint.

Continuous Improvement:

Agile’s manifesto calls for learning & improving. The QC’s followed Kaizen standard of continuous improvement followed by suggestion for improvements. Both approaches realize that ‘learning & improving’ are core principles and driving forces for improved quality.

QC Basic Process: Identification, Analysis & Solutions:

Basci process that QC followed was Identify quality issues, analyze & suggest solutions. This is a perfect match to Agile. Based on the sprint focus, the team identifies. Analyze & produce best solution for the sprint.

Reflection:

QC is a process to reflect of what we are doing & how can we do it better. The 12^th principle of Agile also states “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective’.

Results:

Listed below are some interesting results that QC produces. But if you read them as Agile results, they will make complete sense even with Agile:

·       It infuses Team spirit and improves decision making

·       Improves employee communication & collaboration across levels

·       Builds confidence, trust & incorporates a sense of belonging

·       Improves quality, production & productivity along with enhancing CSAT

Meaning

Quality circle is a concept based on people and focuses on the idea that a team member doing a particular job is the best expert of that process and hence will be in a  better position in identifying , analysing and resolving the problems related to work by brining in improvement ideas.

A Quality Circle can be ideally defined as a  small group of employees in the same process or doing similar work, meeting  weekly to identify, analyse and solution process related problems with the objective of improving quality and productivity resulting in enhancement  overall performance of the organisation as well as improving the quality of work for the employees.

Key Roles

1. Members are the key members of the Circle and participate in the meetings, bring in their ideas and participate in solutioning

2. Non-members work with implementing the recommendations made by the quality circle

3. Leader who is elected by the Circle members and helps in leading in decision making

4. Facilitator facilitates the conversation between Quality circle, steering committee and leadership.  The role is also responsible for creation and onboarding of the members of the Circle

5. Steering committee the sponsors who constantly interact with Quality circle and provide guidance and approvals

6. Top Management the key to success of all ideations identified as they help in driving it across all organizations

 

Evolution

The Quality Circle was conceptualised in Japan by Dr.Kaoru Ishikawa as part of the realization of Japanese that involving the employees at grass root level in improving the processes will result in better quality standards. 

However, with the onset of the World War 2, there was a huge set back for the industries in Japan.  Post the WW2, in order to bring back the Japanese industries back, Dr.Edward Deming visited the Japan and shared the idea of “Quality Management” and advocated that quality begins at the point of designing and ends with a satisfied customer which synonymic with Ishikawa’s Quality Circle concept.  This collaboration resulted in a increased interest in Quality Circles methodology and all industries adopted it in a large scale. The successful adoption and execution resulted in the methodology spreading to other countries.

Concepts to make Quality Circle effective

Every organisation prefers to improve their productivity at the expense of time wasted, COPQ, but not at the cost of people. For a successful and more effective Quality Circle, the following concepts should be followed:

a)     Belief by all the parties involved that there is more than one way to solve a problem

b)     Each team member shows encourages all the members to explain and they build on each other’s ideas

c)      Leader or members periodically summarize the activities ensuring common understanding

d)     Avoid high handedness and voting techniques to reach to an agreement

e)     Encourage constructive disagreements rather than avoiding arguments

Objectives of quality circles

a)     To utilize human resources more effectively by focusing on their development and enhancement

b)     To improve the productivity and the quality of products/services and reduce cost of per unit of output

c)      To mollify the employees’ psychological needs for participation, recognition etc., with the intent of motivating them.

d)     To improve skills like leadership, problem solving and conflict resolution

e)     To make best use of the knowledge both tacit as well as the skills of the employees

f)       To develop cordial relations between workers and managers

 

The Concept of quality circle is still very relevant for an organization practising Lean Six Sigma as it is supposed to bring in benefits both tangible and intangible. Quality circles allow employees to participate, make suggestions and be part of solving problems.

More specifically, following help in justifying the relevance of quality circles:

a)     Self-Development: It works as a very good platform for the employees to enhance their knowledge and skills. The key skills that an organization see its employees improving on is problem solving, teaming and agility.

b)     Job Satisfaction: Employees get a sense of pride and belonging, when they are given opportunities to use their ideas and solutioning abilities. When the ideas provided are considered and executed, the employees get a sense of achievement and satisfaction.  This overall ensures that they work with more enthusiasm while performing their jobs.

c)      Reduction of Waste: By working as a team and helping each other, the team can cut down the waste in time, labour and material. For an organization, there is an ever-increasing trend for Cost and this methodology helps in constantly finding ways to decrease it.

d)     Improvement of Quality: As improving quality is never ending endeavour, a quality circle helps in constantly questioning the current quality and pushes the organization to improve it by seeking participation.

e)     Improvement in Productivity: With reduction of Waste and focus on quality, the ideal problem next to tackle is improving productivity which otherwise is expected go reduce.  Quality Circle just not focuses on quality but also focuses on how to process faster.  The focus on Waste elimination helps to an extent but discussing and designing a better way of executing the process also helps. 

To surmise, encouraging the adoption and use of Quality Circle will help the organization in improving the overall performance of its employees, ensuring effective and well accepted solutions are implemented faster and with lesser resistance.  It also ensures that the communication flow is effective and efficient as the Circle members interact with the Leadership and key decision makers in the organization.  Overall, the Quality Circle helps in developing a problem solving and less resistant to change culture within all levels of the organization

Quality circle is defined as group of people , employee who does same or similar type of work and they meet regularly to identify, analyze and solve their work-related problems.

The participation in the group is voluntary which consist of 3-12 members .The circle group present their improvement solution to management and ideally these circle group themselves implement the solutions as well. This team is highly motivated as they are self-voluntary who find solution and implement as well which has positive impact on their daily work.

 

Advantages of quality circle

• Teamwork promotion
• Enhances people positive attitudes
• Happy work environment
• Positive impact on productivity and quality     

 

Disadvantages of quality circle

• People not aware of purpose
• No enough training to find solutions
• No or little management support
• No decision making power

 

Yes concept of quality circle is still relevant in organization practicing Lean Six sigma.

• This tool helps in bringing in large number of small improvement in the organization as this group is highly motivated.
• Most organization practicing Lean assign senior leader to help these groups as at the end it helps organization to bring in positive improvement.
• It is always seen impact is good when people themselves are involved as they know the problem & solution is going to help the same group.

Also from change quality equation Q * A ( Acceptance) = E ( Effective) when people acceptance is high then impact of solutions is also high, since this group is aware of important of change or  improvement so less resistance is there in implementing the solution.

 

Quality Circles: It is a group of 3 to 12 people or team working on the same project or process, who regularly meet over a period of time to identify any problems they are facing, analyze them in detail and help solve these problems. The problems can be related to Quality, Safety, Productivity or cost reduction. Participation in this process is voluntary. The team then presents the solutions found to the management for approval and then get it implemented with their support.

 

Benefits of Quality circles are:

1. This initiative motivates the people in the team as they are able to identify the problem and see getting that implemented

2. Overall quality and productivity of the process/operations/team improves significantly

3. The working environment of the team also improves significantly

4. This initiative promotes team bonding within the team

 

Short comings or disadvantages of Quality circle are:

1. Management commitment missing: If the top management is not committed to this initiative and do not gets involved in this initiative via being part of meetings, then this initiative do not succeed.

2. Ideas not getting implemented: If the ideas raised or generated by the employees are not implemented, then they start disconnecting from this initiative as they get demotivated.

3. Not having positive mindset: Some times the team members who are part of Quality circles are not having positive mindset or are resistant to any change and this makes it getting implemented very difficult. Hence we might need to implement employment development programs to ensure alignment

4. No clarity: Sometimes the employees are not clear of the purpose or the objective

5. Since the participation is voluntary, sometimes not all employees do not participate, thus making it incomplete

 

Hence we can conclude that Quality circles are still relevant in companies that implement/practice Lean Six Sigma, although in the form of Kaizen groups, as they can drive continuous improvement to the process/operations... however following things are very important

 

1. Management commitment is extremely important

2. The purpose and the objective of the Quality circle initiative should be made very to the team.

3. All the people should have right kind of mindset to drive this initiative

3. All the employees should be encouraged to participate and contribute to the Quality Circle

4. The ideas that get generated, management should take necessary interest in implementing these ideas and if they are not getting implemented, then appropriate reasoning should be given to the team

 

 

Quality Circle is a small group composed of members (generally 4 to 8) from the same work area, gathering frequently (at least once a week for an hour) to discuss workplace improvement, and present their ideas to the management, especially those related to the quality of output.

 

The concept is still prevalent in the organizations practicing Lean Six Sigma. This is more practised and highly accepted in manufactuing set-up than service sectors. This is still relevant today because it focus to develop the capability of grass-root level employees by providing them opportunities to participate in the problem solving activities. On the contrary, the six sigma is designed for managerial cadre. Hence, these grass-root people do not get opportunity to learn six sigma or have less exposure to six sigma principles.

 

Thru Quality Circle activities, these grass-root people get an opportunity to learn various problem solving tools and key skills such as team work, presentation skills, communication skills, etc. These are the people who are responsible for carrying out small-small improvement at shop-floor thus maintaining the pace of the continous improvement in the organization.

Such open ended questions are always a treat  Simply because there are so many different perspectives that one gets to read about the same single concept. 

 

There are 4 winners for this question - Rahul Garg, Raghunandan Reddy, Sharmistha Chowdhury, Sandhya Venu - primarily for the details, examples or uniqueness of the answer.