Lean Quality Control Circles
Quality Circles refers to a focused group of personnel in the work area, usually from various departments, working voluntarily towards a common goal to consistently review, assess and settle quality issues related to a task, project or product. They are cohesive team with about five to eight members committed to conducting planned meetings on a consistent basis for the continual improvement of a project or work at hand.
The members of this small group participate in utilizing problem-solving techniques to acquire control over the work being done, incorporating improvements in the workplace and enhancing continuous improvement or possitive change in the process.
Objectives of Quality Circle
The key objectives of Quality Circles include the following:
- Continuous Improvement: To enhance continuous improve in any area like safety, quality, productivity, and cost minimization.
- Enhances Creativity: To provide a system for the workers to utilize their creative ability and intellect.
- Enhances Team Spirit: To persuade team spirit and motivational aspects, cohesiveness across numerous levels and segments of the workers.
- Quality Leadership: To encourage self and mutual enhancement including quality leadership.
- Self-Esteem: To comply with the self-esteem and motivational requirements of workers and employees.
- Contributes to Work-Life Balance: To enhance the quality of a worker's life and work-life balance of workers and employees.
Attributes of an Effective Quality Circle
This concept of quality circles offers the prospect of utilizing the creativity, talents, and experience of the members making it in managing improvements in the project or task by transforming the problematic issues into opportunities for improvements. One effect of this is that it empowers the feeling of ownership in circle members helping them to realize that they have a significant role to play in the organization.
Some of the attributes of effective quality circles include the following:
- Conducive Environment: The environment should be natural, pleasant, and relaxed. The members’ views should be regarded as important part, thereby encouraging them to remain engaged.
- Taking Charge: All members of the circle should play their role as assigned by the group’s leader.
- Group Objectives: The objectives of the meeting should be evident to the members.
- Communication and Mutual Understanding: The members should attend to each other queries. They need to feel normal and not offensive even when there are disagreements.
- Decision Making: The decisions made should be adopted through mutual consensus and voting should be adopted as the last tool for agreement. When action needs to be adopted, comprehensible assignments should be incorporated and acknowledged by all the members.
- Effective Team Leadership: The team leader should not be a dominating person in the group. The primary idea should not be as to who manages but how to have the job completed.
- Results: The team should remain focus on the final solution, and when a final solution is reached, results should be acquired along-with feedback.
About the Author
Adebayo is a thought leader in continuous process improvement and manufacturing excellence. He is a Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt (CSSMBB) Professional and Management Systems Lead Auditor (ISO 9001, 45001, ISO 22000/FSSC 22000 etc.) with strong experience leading various continuous improvement initiative in top manufacturing organizations.
You can reach him here.
