Quality Circle Programme Research Articles

Evaluation of quality circle programme implementation barriers in Indian SMEs with ISM methodology

Evaluation of quality circle programme implementation barriers in Indian SMEs with ISM methodology

Quality Circles in Hospital: An Exploratory Study

Introduction: Quality circle (QC) consists of people working in a common work area, coming togethervoluntarily to identify, analyze and solve various quality related problems within their area.Methodology: The exploratory study was done in a hospital in India that was part of large public sectororganisation that ran the program of QC across its institutions and also in its non-core areas like the hospitals.Primary data was collected from the staff working in the hospital that was part of quality circles.Results: Most of the QC members reported an improvement in terms of the Job satisfaction andaccomplishment that was measured on the 6 parameters. The perception of the Non-members about thegeneral organizational climate was on the lower side in comparison to the members ofthe QCs. The membersof the QC seemed to fare better than the Non- members.Discussion and Conclusion: If the top and middle management develop faith and conviction in the efficacyof the QC program, then rolling this out is not an issue at all. Most of the members were appreciative of thefact that program of this kind was great learning experience. There was a unanimous agreement on the factthat this activity should continue and be extended to the whole of the organization in the whole country.The findings suggested that the employees saw positive changes after becoming part of QCs in regard totheir personal growth and they also perceived positive changes in certain important organizational aspectswhich helped them to function effectively.The organizational climate seemed to have improved with QC as reflected in job satisfaction and sense ofaccomplishment between QC members and non-Members.

Evaluation of Quality Circle (QC) program implementation barriers in Indian SMEs with ISM methodology

Evaluation of Quality Circle (QC) program implementation barriers in Indian SMEs with ISM methodology

The influence of learning activity on low-skilled workers’ skill improvement in the South Korean manufacturing industry

The main purpose of this study was to explore how low-skilled worker’s learning activity influences skill improvement. Using a unique 2007 Human Capital Corporate Panel data-set from the South Korean manufacturing industry, we operationalize skill improvement over time among low-skilled workers. A worker is classified as ‘low skilled’ if he or she has a low education level and poor technical skills. Regression models show that low-skilled workers’ informal learning positively influences their skill improvement. In contrast, we note that supervisors negatively influence skill improvement of low-skilled workers when measuring the change in technical skill proficiency. Quality circle programmes also have a positive influence on skill improvement. In conclusion, skills can be improved through planned interventions that increase collaboration on the job. The results from this study help to highlight the importance of designing learning interventions for low-skilled workers that take account of their underlying education and skills.

Quality circle technique in tertiary health care system: A Sustainability model.

Objectives: To find out important administrative/human resource problems, barrier may exist and role of quality circle in improvement of quality of sanitation at tertiary health care system. Study design: Observational descriptive case study Study setting: In August 2014, a study was initiated to establish quality circles in a 1407-bed tertiary care hospital in Central India. After the administrative process and a pilot study, experimental units began implementing the quality circle program in September 2014. After exploring many problems related to patient care it was decided to address poor hospital sanitation as it was felt an important issue. Study participants: All full time permanent workers willing to participate in the study as a group member and one of the member was elected as group leader. Main outcome: Effective functioning of quality circle, tremendous improvement in ambiance in terms of floor, side walls, toilet and hospital waste management assessed by qualitative means- observations and feedback. Results: Majority 98.5% of the hospital problems were of C and D category. Predominant problem was poor sanitation, poor hospital waste management and robotic work pattern. It was decided to form quality circles for well-defined problem so that with the help of facilitator and group leaders were able to solve problem with full participation. At this juncture there is “no foul smell no filth”. Waste is properly collected and disposed of. Focus group discussion with different circle reveals work satisfaction. Discussion with other staff said that “tremendous improvement in all aspect of hospital environment”. However; it was a converse situation in nonquality circle areas. Conclusion: Quality circle programme at Government Medical College, Nagpur, and tertiary hospital tremendously improved hospital sanitation without additional financial inputs from hospital administration. Working together with some knowledge about problems and its easy elucidation provided by group members tremendously achieved desire goal in terms of quality of hospital sanitation. Outcome is not only be amazing but it will also help us to stumble on our own lacunae and facilitate designing of a better system.

How to make Quality Circle a success in manufacturing industries

PurposeQuality Circle is a very effective program and low‐cost tool for implementing total quality management (TQM) in industry. A good number of manufacturing industries have so far adopted the Quality Circle program successfully, however the Quality Circle concept has failed in many other cases. To make successful use of the Quality Circle tool in manufacturing industries, knowledge and awareness of the probable reasons behind the failures of the Quality Circle is essential.Design/methodology/approachIn this general review paper, after thoroughly reviewing literatures, the authors consolidate and highlight the probable reasons behind the failures of the Quality Circle, especially in manufacturing industries.FindingsThis study reveals that organizational Issues at the background stage; circle‐formation Issues at the implementation stage; and operational Issues at the operating/running stage of Quality Circle implementation, are the three main key areas of the problems which generally limit the success of the Quality Circle.Originality/valueIf the management is aware of and takes care of such anticipated problems, it is more likely that the Quality Circle programme will definitely be a success, leading to the effective implementation of TQM in the organization.

Managing the quality circle process: a new investigation of Toyota's QC practices

Quality circles (QCs) originated in Japan and have been adopted by the US companies since 1970s, which is generally recognised to have numerous benefits including increased productivity, raised employee motivation and cost reduction. While many companies try to follow Toyota's success by formulating similar QCs, many practitioners are not aware of the emphasis of QCs that Toyota focuses on. This work investigates the QCs programme in Toyota to discover why QCs can achieve success in Toyota and the difficulty of implementing them in other companies. This paper utilises a form of data mining technique as latent semantic analysis to analyse Toyota's achievement in QCs. This work examines the importance of the outcomes for QCs, and one of them is the learning of each individual within the circles rather than the actual results produced from the circles. These new insights will provide an increased understanding of Toyota's QCs programme.

Application study of innovative Quality Circle Programme and its Decision Support System in a gear manufacturing company

During the 1980s, the world witnessed the application of Quality Circles (QCs) for problem solving. Due to stiff competition, the world community began to expect innovation in addition to problem solving. As a result, QCs began to diminish in the world. In order to overcome this deficiency, this paper describes a technique called Innovative QC encompassed with innovation and QC concepts. As key decisions are required to be made for successful implementation of innovative QC, its Decision Support System (DSS) was adopted for investigation. The practicality of innovative QC and its DSS were examined in a gear manufacturing environment.

Knowledge Managed Quality Circle programme

'Quality Circle' (QC) is an employee involvement technique that was once widely applied in organisations to achieve continuous quality improvement. However, QCs began to vanish soon after the world experienced knowledge and Information Technology (IT) explosions. This paper reports research work carried out to overcome this situation by developing a model named Knowledge Managed Quality Circle (KMQC). This model envisages the development of knowledge portals and a specific type of organisation to facilitate the integration of QC and Knowledge Management (KM). KMQC's practicality was studied by applying it in a compressor manufacturing company.

Professional nurses’ perception of the implementation of quality circle programme in a public hospital in the Eastern Cape province

A qualitative research design that is explorative, descriptive and contextual in nature was employed in order to understand and describe the professional nurses' perception of the implementation of a quality circle programme in a public hospital in the Eastern Cape Province. The data-collection techniques were individual semi-structured interviews and field notes. The sample was drawn from a population of 425 Xhosa-speaking professional nurses employed in this institution. The sample comprised eight (8) professional nurses all of whom volunteered for in-depth individual semi-structured interviews. All the respondents answered one question: How do you perceive the implementation of the quality circle programme in your hospital? During data collection and analysis only one theme emerged, namely the perception of quality circle as a forum for discussing patient care problems and future plans. There were four broad categories in this theme, namely. Staff empowerment. Teambuilding in the nursing discipline. Maintenance of standards by nurses. Challenges to the momentum of a quality circle programme. It is recommended that all three tiers of nursing management be involved in the quality circle programme to improve interpersonal, interdepartmental and intradepartmental communication and concomitantly the nursing care.

Innovative quality circle: a technique for coupling innovation and quality through employee participation

One of the techniques that have been dominating the Total Quality Management (TQM) era is Quality Circle Programme (QCP). Several benefits of QCP have been reported in the literature. In particular, QCPs' problem-solving ability is highly appreciated. Today's intense competition demands innovation rather than mere solving of problems. This situation envisages the integration of innovation management principles with QCP. In order to fulfil this imperative, a technique named innovative Quality Circle (innovative QC) has been proposed in this paper. After describing its framework, the implementation features of innovative QC is presented with the help of a case study. Since it is foreseen that innovative QC's sustainability will be ensured by making use of the Decision Support System (DSS) concept, a DSS named Innovative Quality Circle Programme (IQCP) is presented. The article concludes by citing the need for conducting practical case studies on innovative QC to improve its practical compatibility.

Financial accounting system for quality circle programmes

Appraises that the quality circle programme is one of the enablers of total quality management (TQM) projects. Points out that a considerable number of quality circles fail throughout the world in spite of their contributions toward attaining TQM objectives. Claims that lack of financial accountability causes management to underestimate the contributions of quality circles. Suggests a framework to financially account for quality circle programmes. Describes the efforts made to validate it by attempting implementation in a medium size manufacturing enterprise. Presents financial statements concerning a quality circle prepared using a commercially available accounting package. Concludes by discussing the future scope and issues connected with the implementation of the proposed quality circle accounting system.

Employee response to continuous improvement groups

Continuous improvement groups are teams of employees with special responsibility for improving quality. This paper reports on the first 12 months of a pilot implementation by Land Rover and gives the main results of initial interviews with team members. The analysis concentrates on the attitudes of members who were previously active participants in the quality circle programme, which was formally closed at the end of 1996. The main finding at this stage of the pilot was that these employees welcomed the increased structure and management control of continuous improvement groups where it facilitated improvements to quality consistent with Rover Group’s business goals. Such willingness to accept reduced autonomy in exchange for increased employee involvement and contribution is explained by characterising continuous improvement groups as a stewardship approach to quality management.

Quality circles under the new deal at Land‐Rover

Posits that quality circles (QCs) are a form of employee involvement (EI) which failed due to inconsistent support from management and because they were unable to cope with the realities of organizational power. The QC programme in Land‐Rover flourished during most of the 1990s and is atypical of the national trend where programmes have tended to be short‐lived. States, theoretically, that QCs in Land‐Rover are similar to other programmes in so far as they depend on management support and do not fundamentally challenge the managerial prerogative. Most QC programmes in the UK commenced as an EI initiative, but soon raised issues of participative management which contributed to the brevity of their popularity. The comparative longevity of QCs in Land‐Rover suggests a greater capacity in the company for participative management, although this was unexploited over the long‐term because of the prevailing managerial ideology and its overriding emphasis on economic rationality. Investigates the evidence from the employee perspective.

Attributions of Quality Circles' Problem-Solving Failure: Differences among Management, Supporting Staff, and Quality Circle Members

Employees with experiences in a quality circle (QC) program were asked to answer a questionnaire that measured the attributions of quality circles' (QCs) problem-solving failure. Seven clearly interpretable factors were identified: Lack of top-management support, lack of QC members' commitment, lack of problem-solving skills, QC members' turnover, the nature of the task, lack of support from staff members, and lack of data and time. The nomological network of the 24-item questionnaire is also examined. Further, management personnel made significantly lower attributional ratings concerning lack of top-management support than supporting staff and QC members.

The effect of quality circles on perceived service quality in financial services

Over the past decade much has been written on service quality (SQ) in the financial services industry and on the value of quality circles (QCs) in service industries in general. The SQ literature propounds the competitive importance of achieving high standards of SQ in service companies and documents the advantages and difficulties of maintaining these high standards. In a different area of management, quality circles (QCs) have been developed as a method of improving processes within companies, with a literature citing widely held beliefs about the benefits of running QC programmes. However, few, if any, previous writers have analysed how QCs and their advantages relate to SQ, despite the potential synergies between the two areas. Reviews both service quality and quality circles, identifies the relation between the two within the framework of gap analysis, and presents empirical work carried out within Midland Bank, investigating this relationship. Finally, presents a 12‐stage approach to implementing a QC programme.

An expert system for implementing successful quality circle programmes in manufacturing firms

Examines the successful implementation of quality circle programmes in manufacturing firms. Presents work carried out during a research project undertaken to analyse the difficulties manufacturers and quality managers presently face in implementing successful quality circle programmes and develop an expert system to overcome these difficulties by providing expert advice and solutions. Discusses the importance of quality circle programmes in total quality management, and appraises the ability of the expert system to implement them. Illustrates the development methodology and functioning of the IBM PC‐based expert system developed during the research through a number of figures which include sample runs. Concludes by describing the primary benefits of this expert system and efforts taken to validate it.

Implementation, problems, success and longevity of quality circle programmes

One problem in studying quality circles (QCs) is the shortage of objective measures of success. Another is the fact that many previous studies have been longitudinal but based on only one site. Presents results of a large sample of over 5,000 QCs which capture some longitudinal aspects of quality circle development and relate them to several objective and subjective measures of success. Contrary to previous small, longitudinal studies which have been reported in the literature, this study found no evidence at the level of organizational QC programmes to support the role of top and middle management in QC success, except for the need for management representation on steering committees. Data suggest that organizations with TQM have more successful QC programmes and (weakly) that older QC programmes are more successful.

Quality circles as a means for achieving worker satisfaction - or just a healthy managerial climate? A South African sample

There is very little evidence that participative work programmes such as quality circles (QCs) improve the subjective experience of workers, either on the job, or in their lives generally. Part of the reason for such limited success is offered by literature suggesting that interventions such as QCs should reflect a general organizational philosophy of participation, rather than being the means to enforce organizational change. This study was undertaken in a large South African electrical utility, and consisted of 187 QC members and 63 non-QC members. Managerial climate was measured using a short form of Likert's organizational climate questionnaire, while worker satisfaction was measured using five different measures. Results revealed QC members scored higher on life satisfaction, self-esteem and purpose-in-life than non-QC members. Significant positive correlation was found between managerial climate and satisfaction indices. Regression analysis indicated that managerial climate variables accounted for the major share of the total variance in satisfaction indices, while participation in the QC programme accounted for relatively little: the implication is that QC participation may bring about increased worker satisfaction, but a critical prerequisite appears to be a suitably participative climate in the organization.

Differences between Active and Inactive Quality Circles in Attendance and Performance

Based on the archival data of a quality circle (QC) program in a three-year period, the differences between active QCs (n = 32) and inactive QCs (n = 12) on QC members' participation and QCs' performance were examined using a discriminant analysis. The results showed that active QCs had lower rate of problem-solving failure, higher attendance rate at QC meetings, and higher net savings of QC projects than inactive QCs. The results were discussed in terms of the problem-solving process of small groups.