Quality Circles

Overview
What are Quality Circles? How Do Quality Circles Work? How Can They be Used in an Organization Summary of History and Practices Bibliography

What is a Quality Circle?

Voluntary groups of employees who work on similar tasks or share an area of responsibility They agree to meet on a regular basis to discuss & solve problems related to work. They operate on the principle that employee participation in decisionmaking and problem-solving improves the quality of work

How Do Quality Circles Work?

Characteristics
Volunteers Set Rules and Priorities Decisions made by Consensus Use of organized approaches to Problem-Solving

How Do Quality Circles Work?

All members of a Circle need to receive training Members need to be empowered Members need to have the support of Senior Management

Why QC
Improve quality & productivity Reduce the cost of product/services Solve work related problem Full use of human resources Improve communication with organization Promoting employee moral & commitment Build meaningful work environment

Benefits of QC
Heightened quality awareness Increase the value of the brand Creating sense of ownership Job satisfaction for worker Financial benefits

Org. Structure of QC
Steering committee coordinator Facilator leader Circle member

 Steering committee-Gen manager,HRD, employee union, top management Coordinator-administrative officer/personal manager Facilator- supervisor officer Circle leader Circle member

How to implement

Management informed about it Committee is formed Scope is defined First line supervisor identified area of concerned Give ppt on valuable tips Training to the coordinator and middle management Fixing the role employees are invited to join QC Circle is formed & start working

Important things which need to take care

Voluntary participation Management support Employee empowerment Training programs Team work Problem solving skills

Tools of QC
Pareto diagrams Cause & effect diagram Satisfaction Check sheet Histogram Scatter diagram Graphs & Control charts

Problems with Quality Circles

Inadequate Training Unsure of Purpose Not truly Voluntary Lack of Management Interest Quality Circles are not really empowered to make decisions.

Summary of History and Practices

Quality Circles were first seen in the United States in the 1950s Circles were developed by Dr, Kaoru Ishikawa in Japan in the 1960s Circles were re-exported to the US in the early 1970s

Summary of History and Practices

1980s brought Total Quality Management and a reduction in the use of Quality Circles Quality Circles can be a useful tool if used properly

It is

Passion of every hearts

It is

Obsession of youngster

It is

Craziness of speed lover

True journey start with it

Live to ride, ride to live;"

So screw it, let's ride

Boss of the road

Brijendra-24

Puneet-25

Anuj-47

Mona-32

Priyanka T-57

Priyanka-23

Minal-48
Jyoti-37 Ananthlaxmi

pallavi-27

Sheetal-18

Pre & post world war time

Demand of motorcycle grows HD became leader in innovative engineering Export & sales to police & military Demand decreased 90,ooo bike mfg to military Won the Army-Navy E award

World war-I

World war-II

1969- taken over by AMF but sales decreased due to poor quality
Again 13 members of HD management team purchased the co. from AMF

Problem with HD
Sales decreased Market continued to drop Large inventory of unsold product Down in quality and reduce productivity Less operating cost & high production Hard to sustained

Alternate solution
Cut the employee jobs Decrease the production President Ronald Increase tariff on Japanese motorbike 4.4%49.4% for 5 years

 CEO Richard Teerlink convinced lenders to accept a restructuring plan Plan to improve the quality at various level through making quality circle

The 3Ms of HD
MANAGEMENT
MARKETING MANUFACTURING

 And this 3Ms were not possible with out top management, supervisor, workers commitment & motivation what quality circle teaches us means self & mutual development of workmen

Careful analysis by top mgt-QC approach

Corporate management focused mostly on short term returns. Belief in quick fixes for problems, such as throwing in computers and state-of-the-art machinery to improve productivity. High break-even point that left the company vulnerable to unpredictable market fluctuations. Management that woke up too late to the threat of foreign competition because of the "it can't happen here" syndrome

Relationship
With worker aid in the advancement of new company practices Establish open communication Define roles & consequences shared vision of the company values with employee means tell the truth

 Since HD workers were unionized but they couldnt see themselves separate from co. mission, Vision, &values

HD learning centre
Polish their skills Give the job as per the individual skills Invited all of them to free sign up Once they would signed in they would work as a team

Result of learning centre

All became manager foster employees' personal growth and development Extensive team-building- union leaders, negotiation committees, and stewards EX- engineers are located right in the plant, within walking distance of machine operators union has considerable control over- in sourcing work means job security

Total employee involvement (EI) cannot exist until management and labor can agree that they have a mutual goal: the long-term success

The Top Management initiated

Participated and learned about customers concerns and complaints at Harley Owners Group (HOG) rallies & creates changes
Learned about Japanese plants and Honda

Implement the production improvement thru Just-in-time (JIT), Materials-as-needed (MAN), Quality Circles (QC) & Statistical Operator Control (SOC)
Educate the middle management and front line people in turning the plant to profit center by reducing defect products and increase productivity Implemented product improvement thru new engine, stereo system, etc

The Top Management initiated

Enhanced its presence in Europe - Harley opened a branch office of its HOG club in Frankfurt, Germany, for its European fans 1997 - A new engine plant in Milwaukee 1998 A new assembly plant in Kansas City

Recreate the public image with high quality licensed goods (i.e leather jackets, cologne, jewelry, pajamas, sheets, towels etc)

Benefits of this efforts

The Harley-Davidson production plant has improved, between 1981 1988 Inventory reduced by 67% Productivity up by 50% Scrap and rework down two-thirds Defect per unit down 70%

Harley Owners Group (HOGs) The trailblazers for the successful growth and mystique to come

The branded merchandises/licensed goods has created New customer segment Rubbies (the rich urban bikers) In 1992 the merchandises contributed $155.7 million in sales (alternate revenue for dealers)

IMAGE

American flag and the eaglereflective of the passion and freedom

PRICE

value over price +customized prod.

What HD learned

Problem can not solve only throwing money. It is the game of team work to improve the quality through making various circle around the problem