QUALITY CIRCLES

John Ceballos
Industrial Engineer
Agenda
1. The History of Quality Circles

2. Western View vs. Japanese View

3. What is a Quality Circle

4. How a Quality Circle Work

6. Strategies for Effective Quality Circles

6. Case Study

7. Conclusions

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1. The History of Quality Circles
* During the early stages of the post-war reconstruction, the Japanese
industries faced the following industrial problems:

1. Low job interest

2. Worker Indifference Consequences of the
3. Strikes “Taylorism” in Japan
4. Absenteeism
5. Low motivation
6. Excessive sick leave
The Taylor Way

3
1. The History of Quality Circles
During the early stages of the post-war reconstruction, the Japanese
industries faced the following industrial problems:

1. Low job interest

2. Worker Indifference Consequences of the
3. Strikes “Taylorism” in Japan
4. Absenteeism
5. Low motivation
6. Excessive sick leave

The disadvantages of the Taylor System outweighed the benefits

QUALITY CIRCLES

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2. Japanese View vs. Western View

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 3. What is a Quality Circle?
According to Burr and Agocs (1999) “Quality Circles is a group of
employees that meets regularly to solve problems affecting their work
area, generally comprising 6 to 12 volunteers”

According to Hutchins (1985) “Quality Circle is a small group of people

between 3 and 12 people who do the same or similar work, voluntarily
meeting together for about an hour per week in paid time, usually under
the leadership of the own supervisor, and trained to identify, analyse and
solve some of the problems in their work, presenting solutions to
management”*

**

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3. What is a Quality Circle?
According to Hutchins (1985)

1. “Is a small group of people between 3 and 12 people who do

the same or similar work”
• Comprise homogeneous people from the same area *
• Similar Background **
• Speak the same work language

2. “Voluntarily meeting together”

• People are free to join or leave the circle. ***
• In early stages of the Quality Circles people are invited to join the
circles but not compelled.

3. “Meeting regularly for about an hour per week in paid time"

• Meetings at a time which causes least interference with work
schedules****

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 3. What is a Quality Circle?
According to Hutchins (1985)

4. “Under the leadership of the own supervisor”

• The facilitator plays the role of the leader in the Quality Circle.*
• The facilitator helps the circle to work as a team, focus on
priorities, solve problems and present solutions to management.

5. “To identify, analyse and solve some of the problems in their

work”
• Quality Circles identify problems in their work area and present
solutions to management.

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4. How Quality Circles work?
Problems are generally solved by using problem-solving techniques.

These are techniques to identify problems, to collect and analyse

data, examine causes, suggest solutions, evaluate the solutions, and
to implement them.*

The techniques include:

• Brainstorming
• Data Collection
• Data Analysis
• Pareto Analysis
• Cause and Effect analysis
• Histograms
• Control Techniques

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4.1-Brainstorming
The idea of brainstorming is to use the collective thinking power of a
group of people to come up with the ideas they would not think of by
themselves*

Brainstorming is commonly used in Quality Circles:

 To identify problems
 To analyse causes
 To highlight possible solutions**

“No discussion is allowed at this stage”***

1. Non Circle controllable

2. Partially Circle controllable
3. Totally Circle controllable
****

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4.2-Data Collection *

The most common tool used to gathering data by Quality Circles is the
Check Sheet.

Members of the circle must be aware of the limitations of the

techniques they are using to collect data. “If they need to be more
certain about the accuracy of their data, they should enlist the services
of a trained statistics specialist to work with them”. (Hutchins, 1985)

**

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4.2-Data Collection

**
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4.3-Pareto Analysis
With the data collected in the Check Sheets, the Quality Circles may
analyze it with Pareto Diagrams, to conclude that 80% of the problem
is caused by only 20% of the causes.

Benefits of using Pareto Diagrams

1. It is a useful way to present information to management.
2. It is a good tool to analyse the main causes of the problem
3. Can be used to compare results after improvement
4. Focus the goals of the Quality Circle

*
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4.4 - Cause and Effect Analysis
When the principal problem has been selected by Pareto Diagrams,
the next stage is to classify the most probable causes. To do this the
members of the Quality Circle may use the Cause Classification
Diagram

* **
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4.5-Presentation
Then next stage of the Quality Circle program includes the presentaCon of the
analysis and the soluCons to the specific problem. This presentaCon should
includes the highlight of their acCviCes and the final conclusions of the
problem

If the soluCon of the problem is accepted by management the soluCon is

implemented, otherwise the soluCon is discarded. However, rejecCon by
management of circle proposals is fortunately extremely rare. (Hutchins, 1985)

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5. Strategies for Effective Quality
Circles
The success of a Quality Circle depends on ten important
characteristics (Burr and Agocs, 1999):

1.Objetives:
Objectives of QC should be well defined. Japanese view: quality of
people; Western view: quality of products*

2.Meeting frequency:
The more meetings the QC makes, the less time require to the
members of the circle to solve a problem.

3.Membership:
The circle membership is characterized in literature as voluntary
and conformed of a group of people who do similar kinds of work.

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5. Strategies for Effective Quality
Circles
The success of a Quality Circle depends on ten important
characteristics (Burr and Agocs, 1999):

4.Installation Process:
This characteristic defines the stages of the Quality Circle. The
installation process should be done by the facilitator.

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5. Strategies for Effective Quality
Circles
The success of a Quality Circle depends on ten important
characteristics (Burr and Agocs, 1999):

5.Leadership:
The facilitator plays the role of the leader in the Quality Circle. Is
not necessary that the leader has the knowledge or the specific
procedures of the topic or problem analyzed. The facilitator`s job is
process oriented. *

6.Member preparation and training

Training of Facilitators
External management consultants are used for planning and initial
information on circles, but not for analyze the problem itself. **
Training of members of the quality circle
Consultants are often used to train circle members.

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5. Strategies for Effective Quality
Circles
The success of a Quality Circle depends on ten important characteristics
(Burr and Agocs, 1999):

7. Agenda for Meetings

The leader must define the activities for each meeting.

8.Rewards
There are not financial rewards for people involved in QC; however,
there are some symbolic, psychological and social awards for the
members of the circle.*

9.Outcomes and Evaluation

Japanese models use anecdotal data and intuition to analyse the results.
Western models try to quantify the costs and benefits of circles

10.Life Cycle
Members of the circle need to define the life cycle of the quality circle. **
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6. Case Study
I.Q.A Corning Medical, Corning Ltd, Sudbury,
England (1983)

 Trying to solve some of the problems that the Machine Shop I.Q.A
had, the company decided to use Quality Circles to solve some of
them.

 The Quality Circle was called ENGINEERS Q. C.

 With the use of the Brainstorm technique, ENGINEERS found

that the main problems to solve were the rates of rejection and
rework.

 I.Q.A had reject rates of 12.6% for the first two periods of 1983

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 6. Case Study

Source: Hutchins, David. (1985) Quality Circles Handbook, * Source: Hutchins, David. (1985) Quality Circles Handbook,
Long Acre, London.
**
Long Acre, London.

“Participation by all machining Main Causes : “Plastic, Finish and

personnel was critical for this Tolerance”
stage”
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6. Case Study

It was concluded that the

main causes on the effects of
PLASTICS, FINISH and
TOLERANCE:

1. TOOLING
2. INFORMATION EXCHANGE
3. MACHINES

Source: Hutchins, David. (1985) Quality Circles Handbook,

Long Acre, London.

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6. Case Study

Source: Hutchins, David. (1985) Quality Circles Handbook,

Long Acre, London.
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6. Case Study

Source: Hutchins, David. (1985) Quality Circles Handbook,

Long Acre, London.
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6. Case Study

Source: Hutchins, David. (1985) Quality Circles Handbook,

Long Acre, London. 25
6. Case Study

Source: Hutchins, David. (1985) Quality Circles Handbook,

Long Acre, London.

Summary and Achievements

1. Greatly improved quality
2. Increased motivation within the machine shop
3. Improved working relationships with other departments through
QC.
4. Reduced material costs of scrap
5. Increased customer confidence as a result of all the achievements.
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7. Conclusions
“Japanese management philosophy, which supports Quality Circles
is responsible for some 16% of the total profit of Japanese industry,
and in one large company it is claimed that Quality Circle successes
contribute 25% of the profits” (Hutchins, 1985)

“Quality Circles are the most excitement and profound approach to

management to have become established in the world since the
advent of scientific management” (Hutchins, 1985)

“Any tool with this potential needs to be implemented”

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Thanks