Quality circle certification

Courtesy: Quality circle certification

A quality circle or quality control circle is a group of workers who do the same or similar work, who meet regularly to identify, analyze and solve work-related problems. It consists of minimum three and maximum twelve members in number. Normally small in size, the group is usually led by a supervisor or manager and presents its solutions to management; where possible, workers implement the solutions themselves in order to improve the performance of the organization and motivate employees. Quality circles were at their most popular during the 1980s, but continue to exist in the form of Kaizen groups and similar worker participation schemes.

Typical topics for the attention of quality circles are improving occupational safety and health, improving product design, and improvement in the workplace and manufacturing processes. The term quality circles was most accessibly defined by Professor Kaoru Ishikawa in his 1985 handbook, “What is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way” and circulated throughout Japanese industry by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers in 1960. The first company in Japan to introduce Quality Circles was the Nippon Wireless and Telegraph Company in 1962. By the end of that year there were 36 companies registered with JUSE by 1978 the movement had grown to an estimated 1 million Circles involving some 10 million Japanese workers. The movement built on work by Dr. W. Edwards Deming during the Allied Occupation of Japan, for which the Deming Prize was established in 1950, as well as work by Joseph M. Juran in 1954.

Quality circles are typically more formal groups. They meet regularly on company time and are trained by competent persons (usually designated as facilitators) who may be personnel and industrial relations specialists trained in human factors and the basic skills of problem identification, information gathering and analysis, basic statistics, and solution generation Quality circles are generally free to select any topic they wish (other than those related to salary and terms and conditions of work, as there are other channels through which these issues are usually considered).

Quality circles have the advantage of continuity; the circle remains intact from project to project. (For a comparison to Quality Improvement Teams, see Juran’s Quality by Design.

History

Quality circles were originally described by W. Edwards Deming in the 1950s, Deming praised Toyota as an example of the practice. The idea was later formalized across Japan in 1962 and expanded by others such as Kaoru Ishikawa. The Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) coordinated the movement in Japan. The first circles started at the Nippon Wireless and Telegraph Company; the idea then spread to more than 35 other companies in the first year. By 1978 it was claimed by JUSE in their publication Gemba to QC Circles, that there were more than one million quality circles involving some 10 million Japanese workers. As of 2015 they operate in most East Asian countries; it was recently claimed by the President of the Chinese Quality Circles Society at the ICSQCC Conference in Beijing 30 August 1997 that there were more than 20 million quality circles in China.

Quality circles have been implemented even in educational sectors in India, and QCFI (Quality Circle Forum of India) is promoting such activities. However this was not successful in the United States, as the idea was not properly understood and implementation turned into a fault-finding exercise – although some circles do still exist. Don Dewar together with Wayne Ryker and Jeff Beardsley established quality circles in 1972 at the Lockheed Space Missile factory in California.

Empirical studies

In a structures-fabrication and assembly plant in the south-eastern US, some quality circles (QCs) were established by the management (management-initiated); whereas others were formed based on requests of employees (self-initiated). Based on 47 QCs over a three-year period, research showed that management-initiated QCs have fewer members, solve more work-related QC problems, and solve their problems much faster than self-initiated QCS. However, the effect of QC initiation (management- vs. self-initiated) on problem-solving performance disappears after controlling QC size. A high attendance of QC meetings is related to lower number of projects completed and slow speed of performance in management-initiated QCS QCs with high upper-management support (high attendance of QC meetings) solve significantly more problems than those without. Active QCs had lower rate of problem-solving failure, higher attendance rate at QC meetings, and higher net savings of QC projects than inactive QCs. QC membership tends to decrease over the three-year period. Larger QCs have a better chance of survival than smaller QCs. A significant drop in QC membership is a precursor of QC failure. The sudden decline in QC membership represents the final and irreversible stage of the QC’s demise. Attributions of quality circles’ problem-solving failure vary across participants of QCs: Management, supporting staff, and QC members.