Hi friends! This article will help you to understand about the Quality Circle. It is one of the fundamental tool of Business Excellence which is mostly used in Manufacturing Industries to improve Key Performance Indicator of an organization. It is a group activity consisting of 4-5 workmen members.
DR. K. ISHIKAWA is known as father of Quality Circle.
Why Quality Circle is required?
- To improve the Key Performance Indicator such as Productivity, Quality, Safety, Cost, Delivery, Morale & Environment etc.
- To Involve operator, Quality inspector & maintenance people to solve their issue by them in their respective area.
- To develop Problem solving competency.
- To develop Participative culture and communication skill.
Where is Quality Circle done?
This initiative is done on line level of manufacturing process where Operators, Quality inspector & Maintenance people are working day & night. They are running machine 24×7, it means they are spending more time with the machine. So they very well understand the product, defects related to product, abnormality & about the health of the machine. If any defect is generated in the product then Operator, Quality inspector & Maintenance people should jointly sit together, brainstorm & solve the issue with the help of Quality circle methodology.
How to do Quality Circle?
There is a 12 step in QC methodology, if any QC project need to be done then this project should follow the 12 steps of QC.
1. Identification of problem
2. Selection of problem
3. Define the problem
4. Analysis of the problem
5. Identification of the problem
6. Finding out the root causes.
7. Data Analysis
8. Developing Solution
9. Foreseeing Probable resistance
10. Trail Implementation
11. Regular Implementation
12. Follow up & Review
1. Identification of problem – Team (Operators, Inspector & maintenance) should brainstorm with help of chart to identify all the problems. (Tool – Brainstorm & Chart)
2. Selection of problem – After identification of problem, all these problems need be stratified then categorized into A, B, C & A/K.
A – Category – Minimum involvement of other department in solving these problems.
B- Category – Involvement of other departments is necessary to solve these problems.
C – Category – Management approval is necessary to solve these problems.
A/K – Category – Easy to solve these problems through kaizen
There after, the team members by using ranking & weightage method, problem is to be identified. Then the selected problem is registered and the same needs to be communicated to the Top management.
(Tool – Stratification, Pie Chart, Ranking method, weightage method)
3. Define the problem – Problem need to be explained in an easy manner so that a layman can also understand the issue.
4. Analysis of the problem – With the help of data collection & pie chart, problem can be analyzed. If possible, analysis of the problem can be done with the help of 4W1H method.
5. Identification of causes – Team member need to brainstorm with help of Fishbone method and identify the probable causes of the problem.
6. Finding out the root causes – Again team members need to brainstorm and with help of data collection, validation of each probable causes need to be done.
7. Data Analysis – With help of data, Pareto diagram need to be drawn. Do the Why – Why analysis and find out the root cause.
8. Developing Solution – Team members will develop the solutions. After brainstorming among the team members only one solution needs to be finalized and that solution is to be considered as corrective action and must compliance with PDCA cycle. QC Steering committee shall review the case study and give the approval for implementation of corrective action.
9. Foreseeing Probable resistance – Foreseeing resistance may come during implementation.
10. Trail Implementation – Do the trail implementation of this QC project on small quality. Study & compare the result of trail report. Result must be in good direction.
11. Regular Implementation – If result is satisfactory then team members go for the regular implementation. Improvement must be compliance with SDCA cycle.
12. Follow up & Review – Regular implementation of QC project standardizes the process. Work Instruction, SOP, FMEA, Drawing, Control plan etc.