Quality circles were first established in Japan in 1962; Kaoru Ishikawa has been credited with their creation. The movement in Japan was coordinated by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE).
The first circles were established at the Nippon Wireless and Telegraph Company but then spread to more than 35 other companies in the first year. By 1978 it was claimed that there were more than one million Quality Circles involving some 10 million Japanese workers. There are now Quality Circles in most East Asian countries; it was recently claimed that there were more than 20 million Quality Circles in China
Quality circles have been implemented even in educational sectors in India, and QCFI (Quality Circle Forum of India) is promoting such activities. However this was not successful in the United States, as it (was not properly understood and) turned out to be a fault-finding exercise although some circles do still exist. Ref Don Dewar who together with Wayne Ryker and Jeff Beardsley first established them in 1972 at the Lockheed Space Missile Factory in California.
There are different quality circle tools, namely:
• The Ishikawa or fishbone diagram - which shows hierarchies of causes contributing to a problem
• The Pareto Chart - which analyses different causes by frequency to illustrate the vital cause,
• Process Mapping, Data gathering tools such as Check Sheets and graphical tools such as histograms, frequency diagrams, spot charts and pie charts
The Concept
The concept of Quality Circle is primarily based upon recognition of the value of the worker as a human being, as someone who willingly activate on his job, his wisdom, intelligence, experience, attitude and feelings. It is based upon the human resource management considered as one of the key factors in the improvement of product quality & productivity. Quality Circle concept has three major attributes:
Quality Circle is a form of participation management.
Quality Circle is a human resource development technique.
Quality Circle is a problem solving technique.
The first circles were established at the Nippon Wireless and Telegraph Company but then spread to more than 35 other companies in the first year. By 1978 it was claimed that there were more than one million Quality Circles involving some 10 million Japanese workers. There are now Quality Circles in most East Asian countries; it was recently claimed that there were more than 20 million Quality Circles in China
Quality circles have been implemented even in educational sectors in India, and QCFI (Quality Circle Forum of India) is promoting such activities. However this was not successful in the United States, as it (was not properly understood and) turned out to be a fault-finding exercise although some circles do still exist. Ref Don Dewar who together with Wayne Ryker and Jeff Beardsley first established them in 1972 at the Lockheed Space Missile Factory in California.
There are different quality circle tools, namely:
• The Ishikawa or fishbone diagram - which shows hierarchies of causes contributing to a problem
• The Pareto Chart - which analyses different causes by frequency to illustrate the vital cause,
• Process Mapping, Data gathering tools such as Check Sheets and graphical tools such as histograms, frequency diagrams, spot charts and pie charts
The Concept
The concept of Quality Circle is primarily based upon recognition of the value of the worker as a human being, as someone who willingly activate on his job, his wisdom, intelligence, experience, attitude and feelings. It is based upon the human resource management considered as one of the key factors in the improvement of product quality & productivity. Quality Circle concept has three major attributes:
Quality Circle is a form of participation management.
Quality Circle is a human resource development technique.
Quality Circle is a problem solving technique.