Quality Circles (Q.

C): Meaning, Objectives and Benefits

1. Meaning of Quality Circles 2. Characteristics of Effective Quality Circles 3.

Objectives 4. Implementation 5. Organization and Working 6. Rules 7. Duties of
Circle Leader 8. Steps for Setting up Quality Circles 9. Benefits 10. Launching of
Programme.

Meaning of Quality Circles:

Conceptually Quality Circles can be described as a small group of employees of

the same work area, doing similar work that meets voluntarily and regularly to
identify, analyse and resolve work related problems.

This small group with every member of the circle participating to the full carries
on the activities, utilizing problem solving techniques to achieve control or
improvement in the work area and also help self and mutual development in the
process.

The concept of the Quality Circle is based on “respect for the human individual” as
against the traditional assumption based on suspicion and mistrust between
management and its employees.

Quality circles built mutual trust and create greater understanding between the
management and the workers. Cooperation and not confrontation is the key
element in its operation. Quality Circles aims at building people, developing them,
arousing genuine interest and dedication to their work to improve quality,
productivity, cost reduction etc.

Thus we can say that a quality circle is a group of 5 to 8 employees performing

similar work, who volunteer themselves to meet regularly, to identify the cause of
their on-the-job problems, employ advanced problem-solving techniques to reach
solutions and implement them.

The concept is based on the premise that the people who do a job everyday know
more about it than anyone else and hence their voluntary involvement is the best
way to solve their work related problems.

The Quality Circle concept provides an opportunity to the circle members to use
their wisdom, creativity and experience in bringing about improvements in the
work they are engaged in by converting the challenging problems into
opportunities and it contributes to the development of the employees and in turn
benefits the organisation as well. The concept encourages the sense of
belongingness in circle members and they feel that they have an important role to
play in the organisation.

Characteristics of Effective Quality Circles:

1. The atmosphere should be informal, comfortable and relaxed. The members

should feel involved and interested.

2. Everyone should participate.

3. The objectives should be clear to the members.

4. The members should listen to each other.

5. The group should feel comfortable even when there are disagreements.

6. The decisions should generally be taken by a kind of consensus and voting

should be minimum.

7. When an action is required to be taken, clear assignments should be made and

accepted by all the members.

8. The leader should not dominate the group. The main idea should not be as to
who controls but how to get the job done.

9. Until a final solution is found and results are attained feedback is necessary.

Objectives of Quality Circles:

Some of the broad objectives of the Quality Circle are:

(i) To improve quality, productivity, safety and cost reduction

(ii) To give chance to the employees to use their wisdom and creativity.

(iii) To encourage team spirit, cohesive culture among different levels and sections
of the employees.

(iv) To promote self and mutual development including leadership quality,

(v) To fulfill the self-esteem and motivational needs of employees

(vi) To improve the quality of work-life of employees.

Implementation of Quality Circles in an Organisation:

For the success of Quality Circle programme, following actions are necessary
in the Organisation:

(a) Few managers representing production, quality control, design, process

planning form the Quality Circle (Q.C.) steering committee. This acts as a policy
making body and will monitor the Q.C. in the Organisation.

(b) Top management must attend the orientation courses designed for them.

(c) A committed top and middle management is necessary.

(d) A facilitator must be appointed, who serves as a link between top management,
Q.C., steering committee, middle management circle leaders and circle members.
Facilitator will coordinate training courses; get the support from all concerned
including top management Q.C., steering committee, circle leader and circle
members to help the circle leader in conducting the meetings, and to provide
necessary resources.

Organisation and Working of Quality Circles:

Q.C. was conceived in Japan in 1962 as a forum for training its work force for
improving the quality of products. Q.C. is a voluntary one. Employees are free to
join or not to join. In it, 8 to 10 employees including the Supervisor from same
workshop doing similar work join together as a group. The Supervisor can become
leader of the group, if the members of Q.C. so desire.

It is a part time activity; members of Q.C. are allowed to meet for an hour every
week. During the various meetings, these groups progressively identify, select,
analyse and solve the problems. Later they offer their proposed solutions to
management for consideration, approval and implementation.

Additionally a senior officer from same workshop is nominated as facilitator who

guides the activities of the group.
A Management Committee at senior level is also formed, which overview the
progress of Quality Circles.

Training of members, leaders and facilitators is very important for the success of
programme.

Rules for Quality Circles:

(a) Each member can contribute an idea on his turn in rotation.

(b) Each member offers only one idea per turn regardless of how many he or she
has in mind.

(c) Not everyone has an idea during each rotation, when this occurs just say
“Pass”.

(d) No criticism or comments should be passed on the ideas being contributed by

the member whatever old it may look to be, welcome their ideas.

(e) During brain-storming, no evaluation of suggested idea should occur. This

applies equally to leader, phrases such as “We have tried it before”, “Impractical”,
“Well” “May be it would work”. “Doubtful”, “Very good” etc. should not be
uttered.

(f) Members can vote by raising their hands.

(g) Only supporting votes are taken. Votes against the ideas are not allowed.

(h) The time allotted for brain-storming session should be variable. The length of
time that can be spent profitably will vary widely with nature of problem and the
group itself. As a general practice, one hour is probably the minimum.

(i) While members give their ideas, they are recorded by the Recorder on a large
sheet.

(j) It is often helpful to set a goal originally, i.e. Let us start for 30 ideas.

(k) When all members say “pass” then the first phase of brain-storming session is
over. This means all ideas have been exhausted.

(l) Now all the ideas recorded on the sheet are displayed.
(m) These massive number of ideas are then narrowed down by the process of
voting. The voting technique works because the members are experts in their areas.
Members vote on each idea. The leader records each vote next to the idea.

(n) Members can vote for as many ideas as they feel have value. Only supporting
votes are taken.

(o) Leader draws a circle around those ideas that receive the most votes. The
members thus find that many of the top ideas will be so identified.

(p) Now the members can focus on a few important ideas instead of being
somewhat confused by a large number of them. These few important ideas are
voted on to give ranking to the circle ideas. Leader writes the ranking number
beside each idea that has been circled.

(q) A member can ask for voting on any idea and argue for or against it. Others can
join, if they wish. Only when the discussion has finished then the voting take place.

Idea ranked in the session can then be taken up for analysis or solution later on.

Duties of Circle Leader:

For the success of Quality Circles, circle leader must have following duties:

(i) He must assume the responsibility of guiding the members.

(ii) He must make his members sure about what is going on.

(iii) He must channelise the discussions.

(iv) Every member is allowed equal opportunity.

(v) Specific task be assigned to each member.

(vi) He must work in coordination with facilitator.

Steps for Setting up Quality Circles:
For starting Quality Circles in an organisation, following steps should be
taken:

(i) First of all Managers, Supervisors and Foremen must be made to understand the
concepts and activities of Q.C.

(ii) Management’s total support and commitment should be made known to

everyone in the organisation.

(iii) Steering committee is formed with the top management personnel to give
direction to Quality Circle activities.

(iv) A facilitator (or sometimes known as promoter) is selected from the senior
management level, who will serve as coordinator and advisor to the circle.

(v) Supervisor and foreman are then trained to act as Q.C. leaders.

(vi) Members of each circle must be selected from the persons who are doing
similar type of work or belong to the same department or section.

(vii) Membership to the circle is voluntary.

(viii) First few meetings of the circle are held with a view to train them.

(ix) To start with, only one to two circles should be formed in an organisation, and
then increase the number gradually as more and more experience is gained.

(x) Meetings must be held regularly, may be once in a week initially and once in a
month on completion of basic training of members.

(xi) Everyone’s suggestion or problem matching with the circle’s objectives is

discussed.

(xii) Total participation of team members must be encouraged.

(xiii) Recommendations of the circle must be considered and decisions should be

taken without delay.
Benefits of Quality Circles (Q.C.):
1. Through the forum of Q.C. the chronic problems-of organisations which really
create hurdles in work get resolved by the grass root employees of organisation,
whose knowledge and experience otherwise is not fully utilized.

2. With such a capable work force, any organisation can easily undertake more
difficult and challenging assignments for its growth and profit.

3. As the employees gain experience they take more challenging projects, in due
course they undertake projects on cost reduction, material handling, quality
improvement, preventing wastage, improving delivery schedule, improving
customer service, improving inspection and test methods, preventing accidents
improving design and process etc.

4. Cost reduction.

5. Increased productivity.

6. Improved quality.

7. Better communication.

8. Better house-keeping.

9. Increased team work.

10. Smooth working.

11. Better mutual trust.

12. Greater sense of belongingness.

13. Increased safety.

14. Better human relations.

Launching of Quality Circle Programme:

The typical steps for launching programme are as under:

(i) Orientation Programme for Senior Management Personnel.

(ii) Orientation Programme for Managers and Executives.

(iii) Orientation Programme for Selected Supervisors.

(iv) Orientation Programme for Workers (selected area).

(v) Formation of Circles (Minimum 2 and Maximum 4).

(vi) Training of Facilitators.

(vii) Training of Leaders.

(viii) Q.C. meetings for projects.

Total Quality Management

Total Quality management is defined as a continuous effort by the
management as well as employees of a particular organization to ensure long
term customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Remember, one happy and
satisfied customer brings ten new customers along with him whereas one
disappointed individual will spread bad word of mouth and spoil several of your
existing as well as potential customers.

You need to give something extra to your customers to expect loyalty in return.
Quality can be measured in terms of durability, reliability, usage and so on. Total
quality management is a structured effort by employees to continuously improve
the quality of their products and services through proper feedbacks and research.
Ensuring superior quality of a product or service is not the responsibility of a
single member.

Every individual who receives his/her paycheck from the organization has to
contribute equally to design foolproof processes and systems which would
eventually ensure superior quality of products and services. Total Quality
management is indeed a joint effort of management, staff members, workforce, and
suppliers in order to meet and exceed customer satisfaction level. You can’t just
blame one person for not adhering to quality measures. The responsibility lies on
the shoulder of everyone who is even remotely associated with the organization.

W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran, and Armand V. Feigenbaum jointly

developed the concept of total quality management. Total Quality management
originated in the manufacturing sector, but can be applied to almost all
organizations.

Total quality management ensures that every single employee is working

towards the improvement of work culture, processes, services, systems and so
on to ensure long term success.

Total Quality management can be divided into four categories:

 Plan

 Do

 Check

 Act

Also referred to as PDCA cycle.

Planning Phase

Planning is the most crucial phase of total quality management. In this phase
employees have to come up with their problems and queries which need to be
addressed. They need to come up with the various challenges they face in their day
to day operations and also analyze the problem’s root cause. Employees are
required to do necessary research and collect relevant data which would help them
find solutions to all the problems.

Doing Phase

In the doing phase, employees develop a solution for the problems defined in
planning phase. Strategies are devised and implemented to overcome the
challenges faced by employees. The effectiveness of solutions and strategies is also
measured in this stage.

Checking Phase

Checking phase is the stage where people actually do a comparison analysis of

before and after data to confirm the effectiveness of the processes and measure the
results.
Acting Phase

In this phase employees document their results and prepare themselves to address
other problems.

Importance of Quality Management

“Quality management” ensures superior quality products and services.
Quality of a product can be measured in terms of performance, reliability and
durability. Quality is a crucial parameter which differentiates an organization from
its competitors. Quality management tools ensure changes in the systems and
processes which eventually result in superior quality products and services. Quality
management methods such as Total Quality management or Six Sigma have a
common goal - to deliver a high quality product. Quality management is essential
to create superior quality products which not only meet but also exceed customer
satisfaction. Customers need to be satisfied with your brand. Business marketers
are successful only when they emphasize on quality rather than quantity. Quality
products ensure that you survive the cut throat competition with a smile.

Quality management is essential for customer satisfaction which eventually

leads to customer loyalty. How do you think businesses run? Do businesses thrive
only on new customers? It is important for every business to have some loyal
customers. You need to have some customers who would come back to your
organization no matter what.

Would you buy a Nokia mobile again if the previous handset was defective? The
answer is NO.

Customers would return to your organization only if they are satisfied with your
products and services. Make sure the end-user is happy with your product.
Remember, a customer would be happy and satisfied only when your product
meets his expectations and fulfills his needs. Understand what the customer
expects from you? Find out what actually his need is? Collect relevant data which
would give you more insight into customer’s needs and demands. Customer
feedbacks should be collected on a regular basis and carefully monitored. Quality
management ensures high quality products and services by eliminating defects and
incorporating continuous changes and improvements in the system. High quality
products in turn lead to loyal and satisfied customers who bring ten new customers
along with them. Do not forget that you might save some money by ignoring
quality management processes but ultimately lose out on your major customers,
thus incurring huge losses. Quality management ensures that you deliver products
as per promises made to the customers through various modes of
promotions. Quality management tools help an organization to design and
create a product which the customer actually wants and desires.

Quality Management ensures increased revenues and higher productivity for

the organization. Remember, if an organization is earning, employees are also
earning. Employees are frustrated only when their salaries or other payments are
not released on time. Yes, money is a strong motivating factor. Would you feel like
working if your organization does not give you salary on time? Ask yourself.
Salaries are released on time only when there is free cash flow. Implementing
Quality management tools ensure high customer loyalty, thus better business,
increased cash flow, satisfied employees, healthy workplace and so on. Quality
management processes make the organization a better place to work.

Remove unnecessary processes which merely waste employee’s time and do not
contribute much to the organization’s productivity. Quality management enables
employees to deliver more work in less time.

Quality management helps organizations to reduce waste and inventory. It

enables employees to work closely with suppliers and incorporate “Just in Time”
Philosophy.

Quality management ensures close coordination between employees of an

organization. It inculcates a strong feeling of team work in the employees.

Total Quality Management Models

Total Quality Management is a combined effort of both top level management as
well as employees of an organization to formulate effective strategies and policies
to deliver high quality products which not only meet but also exceed customer
satisfaction.
Total Quality management enables employees to focus on quality than quantity and
strive hard to excel in whatever they do. According to total quality management,
customer feedbacks and expectations are most essential when it comes to
formulating and implementing new strategies to deliver superior products than
competitors and eventually yield higher revenues and profits for the organization.
Credits for the process of total quality management go to many philosophers and
their teachings. Drucker, Juran, Deming, Ishikawa, Crosby, Feigenbaum and many
other individuals who have in due course of time studied organizational
management have contributed effectively to the process of total quality
management.
There are many models of total quality management and it is really not necessary
that every organization should select and implement the same model.
Following are the various models of total quality management:
 Deming Application Prize
 Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence
 European Foundation for Quality Management, and
 ISO quality management standards
Customers and their feedbacks are the foundation of every Total Quality
Management model. In simpler words, Total Quality Management begins with
understanding customers, their needs and what they expect from the organization.
Design foolproof processes and systems to collect customer data, information to
further study, analyze and act accordingly. Such activities not only help you
understand your target customers but also predict customer behaviour.
As a business marketer, you need to know the age group of your target customers,
their preferences and needs. Employees need to know how their products or
services can fulfil customer needs and demands.
Total Quality Management model requires meticulous planning and research.
Every total quality management model integrates customer feedbacks with relevant
information and plans accordingly to design effective strategies to achieve high
quality products.
Strategies formulated to yield better quality products need to be evaluated and
reviewed from time to time. Remember, customers are satisfied only when
products meet their expectations, fulfil their needs and are value for money. Their
overall experience with the organization needs to be pleasant for them to be happy
and return to the organization even the next time.
Continuous improvements, changes and modifications in the existing processes
according to customer expectations are necessary to yield higher profits. Processes
can’t be same always. If a customer complaints about a particular product of yours,
find out the root cause of problem. Understand and implement necessary total
quality management models to rectify the problem, remove the defect for a high
quality product.
The successful implementation of Total quality Management model needs
extensive planning and most importantly participation of every single member who
is benefitted out of the organization(Management, suppliers, clients and even
customers). Without the participation of each and every employee, total quality
management model would be a complete failure.
Total Quality Management model begins with research and collecting information
about end-users followed by planning and full participation of employees for
successful implementation. Top level Management needs to make other team
members aware of the benefits of total quality management process, importance of
quality to survive in the long run and how they can implement various TQM
models by prioritizing their customers and their feedbacks.

Quality Management Tools

Quality Management tools help organization collect and analyze data for
employees to easily understand and interpret information. Quality Management
models require extensive planning and collecting relevant information about end-
users. Customer feedbacks and expectations need to be carefully monitored and
evaluated to deliver superior quality products.
Quality Management tools help employees identify the common problems
which are occurring repeatedly and also their root causes. Quality Management
tools play a crucial role in improving the quality of products and services. With the
help of Quality Management tools employees can easily collect the data as well as
organize the collected data which would further help in analyzing the same and
eventually come to concrete solutions for better quality products.
Quality Management tools make the data easy to understand and enable employees
to identify processes to rectify defects and find solutions to specific problems.
Following are the quality management tools:
 Check List - Check lists are useful in collecting data and information
easily .Check list also helps employees to identify problems which prevent
an organization to deliver quality products which would meet and exceed
 customer expectations. Check lists are nothing but a long list of identified
problems which need to be addressed. Once you find a solution to a
particular problem, tick it immediately. Employees refer to check list to
understand whether the changes incorporated in the system have brought
permanent improvement in the organization or not?
 Pareto Chart - The credit for Pareto Chart goes to Italian Economist -
Wilfredo Pareto. Pareto Chart helps employees to identify the problems,
prioritize them and also determine their frequency in the system. Pareto
Chart often represented by both bars and a line graph identifies the most
common causes of problems and the most frequently occurring defects.
Pareto Chart records the reasons which lead to maximum customer
complaints and eventually enables employees to formulate relevant
strategies to rectify the most common defects.
 The Cause and Effect Diagram - Also referred to as “Fishbone Chart”
(because of its shape which resembles the side view of a fish skeleton)and
Ishikawa diagrams after its creator Kaoru Ishikawa, Cause and Effect
Diagram records causes of a particular and specific problem .The cause and
effect diagram plays a crucial role in identifying the root cause of a
particular problem and also potential factors which give rise to a common
problem at the workplace.
 Histogram - Histogram, introduced by Karl Pearson is nothing but a
graphical representation showing intensity of a particular problem.
Histogram helps identify the cause of problems in the system by the shape as
well as width of the distribution.
 Scatter Diagram - Scatter Diagram is a quality management tool which
helps to analyze relationship between two variables. In a scatter chart, data is
represented as points, where each point denotes a value on the horizontal
axis and vertical axis.
Scatter Diagram shows many points which show a relation between two variables.
 Graphs - Graphs are the simplest and most commonly used quality
management tools. Graphs help to identify whether processes and systems
are as per the expected level or not and if not also record the level of
deviation from the standard specifications.
Six Sigma and Quality Management
Six Sigma is a business management strategy which aims at improving the quality
of processes by minimizing and eventually removing the errors and variations. The
concept of Six Sigma was introduced by Motorola in 1986, but was popularized by
Jack Welch who incorporated the strategy in his business processes at General
Electric. The concept of Six Sigma came into existence when one of Motorola’s
senior executives complained of Motorola’s bad quality. Bill Smith eventually
formulated the methodology in 1986.
Quality plays an important role in the success and failure of an organization.
Neglecting an important aspect like quality, will not let you survive in the long
run. Six Sigma ensures superior quality of products by removing the defects in
the processes and systems. Six sigma is a process which helps in improving the
overall processes and systems by identifying and eventually removing the hurdles
which might stop the organization to reach the levels of perfection. According to
sigma, any sort of challenge which comes across in an organization’s processes is
considered to be a defect and needs to be eliminated.
Organizations practicing Six Sigma create special levels for employees within the
organization. Such levels are called as: “Green belts”, “Black belts” and so on.
Individuals certified with any of these belts are often experts in six sigma
process. According to Six Sigma any process which does not lead to customer
satisfaction is referred to as a defect and has to be eliminated from the system
to ensure superior quality of products and services. Every organization strives
hard to maintain excellent quality of its brand and the process of six sigma ensures
the same by removing various defects and errors which come in the way of
customer satisfaction.
The process of Six Sigma originated in manufacturing processes but now it finds
its use in other businesses as well. Proper budgets and resources need to be
allocated for the implementation of Six Sigma in organizations.
Following are the two Six Sigma methods:
 DMAIC
 DMADV
DMAIC focuses on improving existing business practices. DMADV, on the other
hand focuses on creating new strategies and policies.
DMAIC has Five Phases
D - Define the Problem. In the first phase, various problems which need to be
addressed to are clearly defined. Feedbacks are taken from customers as to what
they feel about a particular product or service. Feedbacks are carefully monitored
to understand problem areas and their root causes.
M - Measure and find out the key points of the current process. Once the
problem is identified, employees collect relevant data which would give an insight
into current processes.
A - Analyze the data. The information collected in the second stage is thoroughly
verified. The root cause of the defects are carefully studied and investigated as to
find out how they are affecting the entire process.
I - Improve the current processes based on the research and analysis done in the
previous stage. Efforts are made to create new projects which would ensure
superior quality.
C - Control the processes so that they do not lead to defects.

DMADV Method
D - Design strategies and processes which ensure hundred percent customer
satisfaction.
M - Measure and identify parameters that are important for quality.
A - Analyze and develop high level alternatives to ensure superior quality.
D - Design details and processes.
V - Verify various processes and finally implement the same.

What is Kaizen ?
Kaizen” refers to a Japanese word which means “improvement” or “change for the
better”. Kaizen is defined as a continuous effort by each and every employee
(from the CEO to field staff) to ensure improvement of all processes and
systems of a particular organization.
Kaizen works on the following basic principle.
“Change is for good”.
Kaizen means “continuous improvement of processes and functions of an
organization through change”. In a layman’s language, Kaizen brings continuous
small improvements in the overall processes and eventually aims towards
organization’s success. Japanese feel that many small continuous changes in the
systems and policies bring effective results than few major changes.
Kaizen process aims at continuous improvement of processes not only in
manufacturing sector but all other departments as well. Implementing Kaizen
tools is not the responsibility of a single individual but involves every member who
is directly associated with the organization. Every individual, irrespective of
his/her designation or level in the hierarchy needs to contribute by incorporating
small improvements and changes in the system.