Scenario
Quality was always given due importance in the company, but the need to concentrate on it specially arose in the late 1980s when, the company¡¦s turnover began to decline continuously (at one stage it decreased from Rs 224 crores to Rs 188 crores). After this decline, the management decided to improve quality and cut costs by practicing popular Japanese management techniques like TQM (Total Quality Management). ... As a part of this quality overhaul, management introduced concepts like Quality Circles, SGAs (Sub-Group Activities), Six Sigma, TPM (Total Productivity Maintenance), etc. ...
Quality Circles
A Quality Circle is a type of SGA, except that it is at a worker level and also that the project a Quality Circle takes up is voluntary and not assigned by the management. A Quality Circle works on a project basis and the average time per project is 6 months. For a Quality Circle or any such concept to work effectively, there are two essential factors:
ƒÖ Worker involvement, participation and positive attitude
ƒÖ Management co-operation and support
For implementing these concepts, quality experts from all over the country were called to train the management. ... During this phase, there was a 3-day workshop on Quality Circles for all the workers in the factory. This was to ensure that the quality concept was made familiar to the whole organisation.
After this workshop, the management decided to initiate these activities by forming a Quality Circle. The management formed the first Quality Circle consisting of 6-7 interested workers who volunteered. Every Quality Circle had a leader, a deputy leader (both of them workers) and a facilitator (someone from the management or supervisory level). The leadership of a Quality Circle is rotated periodically to give everyone a chance to develop his or her leadership skills. A Quality Circle usually did not have more than 10 members and all were from the same department. ...
After the success of this Quality Circle, the management rewarded the members. This not only motivated the Quality Circle, but also encouraged other workers to volunteer and form other Quality Circles. In this way, the number of Quality Circles in the organisation gradually grew. The management wanted the Quality Circle coverage to be 100% i. ... every worker in the organisation should be a part of one Quality Circle or the other. ...
Another, strong point of the Quality Circle is that it does not clash with the trade union because it is the workers who come out with solutions themselves to their own problems.
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