Quality Circle

                             Introduction

• Quality Circle is one of the employee participation methods. It implies the development of skills, capabilities, confidence, and creativity of the people through a cumulative process of education, training, work experience, and participation.
• It also implies the creation of facilitative conditions and environment of work, which
creates and sustains their motivation and commitment towards work excellence.
• Quality Circles have emerged as a mechanism to develop and utilize the tremendous potential of people for improvement in product quality and productivity.
• It also implies the creation of facilitative conditions and environment of work, which
creates and sustains their motivation and commitment towards work excellence.
• Quality Circles have emerged as a mechanism to develop and utilize the tremendous potential of people for improvement in product quality and productivity.

                                             

What is a Quality Circle?

Quality Circle is a small group of employees in the same work area or doing a similar type of work who voluntarily meet together on a regular basis to identify, analyze and resolve work-related problems, leading to improvement in their total performance, and enrichment of their work life.
• Quality circles were originally associated with Japanese management and manufacturing techniques.
• The introduction of quality circles in Japan in the post war years was inspired by the
lectures of W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993), a statistician for the U.S. government.
• Concept of small group activities took birth in Japan in 1962, and the initial success
led to the rapid growth of this concept in that country.
• In order to afford an opportunity for the quality circle participants to express their
experiences, the first quality control circle conference was held in May 1963.
• The number of quality circles grew and led to the formation of QC regional chapters at different centers.
• Another gradual development that took place was that while QC during the initial stage was introduced mainly in production workshops, the movement of QC started spreading to other areas such as sales departments, warehouses, insurance companies, banks, hospitals, etc.
• World interest aroused – while many companies in the USA which were once leading in their respective fields were laying off their employees, and Japanese items were dominating the world market. The position of world leadership held by the USA started being questioned while Japan continued to manufacture a variety of high-quality products at a reasonable cost.
• Forced by the intense competition offered by the Japanese companies, an increasing number of US firms started having a keen interest in Quality Circles. This naturally led birth of a number of consultancy firms in the USA offering expertise and training in launching and operating Quality Circles.
• Now the QC is being practiced worldwide in every sector.
• In India, The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) was the first to launch QCs in 1980 at its Hyderabad plant.
• Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI) was founded in April 1982.

OBJECTIVE

The objectives of Quality Circles are multi-faced.

a) Change in Attitude
• From "I don’t care" to "I do care"
• Continuous improvement in quality of work-life

b) Self Development
• Bring out the ‘Hidden Potential’ of people
• People get to learn additional skills.

c) Development of Team Spirit
• Individual Vs Team – "I could not do but we did it
"Eliminate inter-departmental conflicts
• Improved Organizational Culture

d) Positive working environment
• Total involvement of people at all levels
• Higher motivational level
• Participate in Management process Structure of quality circles
• Top management
• Steering committee
• Facilitator
• Leaders
•Members

LAUNCHING QUALITY CIRCLES

The major prerequisite for initiating Quality Circles in any organization is the total understanding of, as well as complete conviction and faith in the participative philosophy, on the part of the top and senior management. The launching of Quality Circles involves the following steps:
• Expose middle-level executives to the concept
• Explain the concept to the employees and invite them to volunteer as members of Quality
Circles.
• Nominate senior officers as facilitators Form a steering committee.
• Arrange training of coordinators, facilitators in basics of Quality Circle approach,
implementation, techniques, and operation.
• Later facilitator may provide training to Circle leaders and Circle members.
• A meeting should be fixed preferably one hour a week for the Quality Circle to meet.
• Formally inaugurate the Quality Circle.
• Arrange the necessary facilities for the Quality Circle meeting and its operation.

PROCESS OF OPERATION

The operation of quality circles involves a set of sequential steps as under:
• Problem identification: Identify a number of problems.
• Problem selection: Decide the priority and select the problem to be taken up first.
• Problem Analysis: The problem is clarified and analyzed by basic problem-solving methods.
• Generate alternative solutions: Identify and evaluate causes
and generate number of possible alternative solutions.
• Select the most appropriate solution
• Prepare a plan of action: Prepare plan of action for converting the solution into reality which includes the considerations "who, what, when, where, why and how" of solving problems.
• Present solution to management circle members
• Implementation of solution : The management evaluates the recommended solution. Then it is tested and if successful, implemented on a full scale.

Impact of Quality circles

• Improvement in human relations and work area morale - this is a natural consequence of better understanding and support among the employees at various levels and in different disciplines through opportunities for close interaction.
• Promotion of participative culture – this is because the employees at the grassroots and different levels of management and departments would interact to achieve the common organisational goal and would get involved in resolving work related problems.
• Enhancement of job interest
• More effective team work
• Reducing defects and improving quality
• Improvement of productivity
• Enhancing problem solving capability
• Catalysing attitudinal changes
• Improving communication.

Quality circles in healthcare organisation

• QCs in healthcare organisations can be particularly useful, given the wide variety of professional interests that exist, wide variation of service delivery between departments, and often a higher vertical structure.
• Aim to improve bilateral communication between management and front line staff.
• Establish a more team-oriented approach, and reduce medical errors.
• The outcome goal for QCs in healthcare is improved morale; efficient service delivery, front-line engagement; improved communication, and safety. This may have an added benefit of realizing cost savings while improving patient and staff satisfaction.

•Quality circles initiate conversations among practitioners for the good of the patients.
They are the brains that come together to minimize and prevent accidents in the clinical area. The final product of any quality circle is viewed as better than that of an individual doing all the thinking and prescribing (Pope, Van Royen, & Baker, 2002).
• To resolve the lack of consistency taking place in the execution of procedures in the
healthcare setting quality circles have been considered as a feasible alternative to promote peer collaborations, partnership, and knowledge allotment to optimize quality of care in all healthcare settings (Innovations, 2013).
• Peer quality circles play a role in engaging peers to achieve mutually satisfying outcomes to improve the quality of care that is given to patients (Innovations, 2013). This process includes an action plan and strategy to identify and address common problems that may arise in the workplace that impact qualities of care. 

Examples of Uses for QCs in Health

1. Patient Safety – Hospital Acquired Infections
Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) are a significant and ongoing problem for healthcare
organizations. In spite of policies, procedures, and control measures, HAIs continue to
plague healthcare organizations QCs can play an important role in management of HAIs as staffs are closest to the issues that foster the chain of infection. Regardless of how much resource allocation is invested into HAIs, it is not likely to improve if a culture of prevention is not pervasive throughout the organization; down to the level of the front line.
• QCs at the unit level can diagnose risk potential, analyze what factors are contributing to chain of infection risk, and identify possible solutions. QCs can analyze and share surveillance data; perform random audits, and provide immediate correction of potential risk factors, over and above IPCTs, when staff are aware of, have ownership of and actively engaged in prevention.
• Staff at the unit level may be more aware of factors that lead to non-compliance and therefore can identify possible solutions to improve compliance.

2. Job Satisfaction
• Many health care fields are facing a chronic professional shortage. High job stress, chronic staff shortages, and poor employee morale lead to higher rates of staff turnover in many healthcare organizations. Nursing in particular have well-documented issues pertaining to workload stress and burnout.
• QCs at a unit level can play a significant role in improving staff satisfaction;
especially if findings and recommendations that are born out of this group
are heard and taken seriously by management and executive. 

3. Communication
• In spite of these well intentioned efforts, healthcare organizations all too often continue
to be plagued with error, patient and staff dissatisfaction, and soaring costs.
• Often at the heart of these challenges is a poor or non-existent communication flow to
the front lines. Front line staff rarely has time during a busy shift to hear about the
activities or initiatives within an organization. Staffing challenges often preclude
employees from having an opportunity to participate in education sessions; or are
forced to participate outside work hours.
• Quality circles are important at the unit level to identify potential problems and together
identify potential solutions to quality.