CREATING AN EFFECTIVE QUALITY CIRCLE

Putting together a cross functional team to solve the problems created in the course of business is a very powerful tool that is often underplayed by business owners. Asides saving an organization the cost of engaging consultants to solve their problems, it also creates an avenue to nurture the learning opportunities in an organization.

Quality Circle (QC) was established in the early 60's in Japan. It is made up of volunteers that are trained to identify work related problems, analyze them and resolve. These individuals are drawn from different departments (though preferably doing similar work) within the organization thereby giving the team a powerful pool of experienced team as an organizational resource. Members can also come from related departments so that they can contribute more from their understanding of the problem.

A good example is having a team of volunteers made up of technicians from the Engineering department, Product Developers, IT analysts, Sales men, Accountants, Controllers and Business Analysts come together as a group that meets like once a week to resolve work related problems like a recurring error made in processing a customer order. The different options brought to bear from the varied expertise will also serve as a very effective tool to manage the problems.

There is no size limitation but it must not be large. The principles followed in establishing a QC are as below:

Ideas in setting up a QC

• Draw members from cross functional groups (preferably people doing similar work)
• Schedule meetings for once a week or once in two weeks at most
• Ensure membership is voluntary
• Make the meetings compulsory
• The QC members should be trained by an expert on the conduct of a QC and problem solving skills
• There should be a pool of problems to be resolved by the QC
• There should be a steering committee for the QC to report to 

In a QC meeting, the following occur:

• Identification of a problem to discuss
• Getting deeper information about the problem from the process owner so that members can understand
• Brainstorming and analyzing the problems using tools like Ishikawa Diagram, Affinity diagram and other brainstorming tools
• Agreeing and making recommendations for implementation
• Sending the recommendation to the relevant approving authority.

The benefits of a QC

• It is a very effective means of solving organization's problems
• It may be more cost effective than outsourcing
• It facilitates organizational learning from understanding the cause of problems and resolving them by staff or the organization.
• It aids the personal development of QC members
• It promotes team work
• It promotes satisfaction of volunteers
• It facilitates continuous improvement

Just to mention a few.

Sample list of pool of problems for a QC

• Reduction of material wastage in a process
• Reduction of processing time (TAT)
• Improvement in customer satisfaction
• Reduction in lead time of a project delivery date
• Resolution of a repetitive audit non conformance
• Resolution of a recurring problem in the production process
• Resolution of a recurring customer complaints

You don't have to wait to have big organization to establish one, you should start today to enjoy the potency of this powerful tool. I will be your collaborator in making this happen for your organization - mail me at titus@profficio.com