A study on quality circle

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

23 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

05/26/2009

Category :

Business & market

Sub category :

Business strategy

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Summary :

Quality circle
Benefits of forming quality circles
Quality circle basic tools module
Importance of quality circles
1. Overview
2. Characteristics of quality circle
3. Problems with quality circles
4. Quality circles techniques
Scope of quality circle
1. Top management commitments
2. Middle management commitments
Quality circle: A unique people development mission
1. Mission of QC's across
Quality circle integrated with total quality management
Road map recommended and used by QCFI for this process
Brainstorming
1. What is it
2. How to brainstorm
3. Methods of brainstorming
4. Basic rules of brainstorming
5. Roles in a brainstorming session
How is list reduction done
Cause and effect diagram
1. What is it
2. When to use it
3. How to construct a cause and effect diagram
Quality methods
1. Five why's
Information system technology
1. Process
2. People: Empowered, competent employees and teams
Implications of reengineering for the human resources function
1. Automation
2. Outsourcing
3. Integration
4. Radical decentralization
5. Articulate a vision
6. Set stretch goals
7. Quality is your job
What is Total Quality Management (TQM)?
1. What's involved?
2. Overview of Total Quality Management (TQM)
3. Deming's 14 points for management:
4. What is a Total Quality Management (TQM) environment
Benefits

Abstract

The term quality circles refers to small groups of line employees (usually ten or fewer) who meet periodically outside of regular work hours to discuss ways to improve the quality of products they produce and the efficiency and effectiveness of the production processes they oversee. Although nominally voluntary, supervisors typically initiate quality circles, and attendance is considered by employees as a required part of their jobs. Proponents consider quality circles an effective way to foster a sense of involvement and to effectively harness the knowledge and expertise of lower-ranking workers. According to a 1994 Japanese Ministry of Labor report, 70 percent of Japanese firms with over five thousand workers and 61 percent of firms with one to five thousand employees have established groups of this kind.

The inspiration for the development of quality circles is attributed to American advisers W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran, who were brought to Japan under U.S. sponsorship in the early 1950s to help Japanese industry address rampant quality problems. The American statistical quality control techniques that were introduced at this time were then adapted to the Japanese context during the late 1950s and early 1960s as part of the Total quality Control (TQC) movement promoted throughout Japanese industry

by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) with government backing. What was distinctive about the JUSE's effort was its emphasis on moving responsibility for quality control out of the exclusive ken of specialized staff employees to include rank-and-file line workers. quality circles first emerged in the early 1960s as study groups devoted to discussing JUSE publications. The JUSE subsequently established regional quality circle promotion offices and held quality circle conventions and other gatherings. A primary motivation on the part of Japanese managers in encouraging quality circles was the fear that Japanese manufacturers would lose out to foreign competition as Japanese trade rules were liberalized. There was also a concern about radicalism and alienation among younger workers.

quality circles were considered one of the secrets of Japanese industrial success during the 1980s boom in foreign interest in Japanese management techniques. Japanese firms introduced quality circles in their overseas subsidiaries, and they have been an important component in the Japanese government's international technical cooperation programs. The Singaporean government has gone so far as to establish an award for the country's most outstanding quality circles.