Quality Circle and Control Charts

1. QUALITY CIRCLES – AN
EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR
MANAGEMENT

2. QUALITY CIRCLE
A quality circle is a participatory management technique that enlists the
help of employees in solving problems related to their own jobs.
Circles are formed of employees working together in an operation who
meet at intervals to discuss problems of quality and to devise solutions for
improvements.
Quality circles have an autonomous character, are usually small, and are
led by a supervisor or a senior worker.

3. Employees who participate in quality circles usually
receive training in formal problem-solving methods—
such as brain-storming, pareto analysis, and cause-and-
effect diagrams—and are then encouraged to apply
these methods either to specific or general company
problems..

4. Quality circles consist of a basically formal, institutionalized
mechanism for productive and participative problem solving interaction
among the employees of an organization.
Quality circles are made of groups of employees (normally 6 to 12) who
perform similar tasks or share an area of responsibility.
The groups meet on a regular basis, usually under the leadership of a
supervisor and often with management, to discuss work related issues
and to offer suggestions and ideas which when implemented not only
improve the performance of the organization but also motivate and
enrich the work of the employees.

5. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
Quality circles operate on the principle that employee’s
participation in decision making and problem solving improves the
production methods and the quality.
The characteristics of quality circles are that they consist of
volunteers who set their own rules and priorities, take decisions by
consensus and use organized approaches to problem solving.
Quality circles activities should not be in the direction of fault
finding. When matured quality circles become self managing, and
gain the confidence of management.

6. Quality circles enable the enrichment of the lives of the
employees and create harmony and high performance.
Typical work related issues are improvements in occupational
health and safety, product design, manufacturing processes and
improvement in the workplace.

7. HISTORY
Quality circles dates back to 1950s when they were first seen in
the United States. But they were seriously developed and
implemented by Dr Kaoru Ishikawa in Japan in 1960.
The first quality circle was registered in 1962. Quality circles
were re-exported to USA in the early 1970s. International
Association of Quality Circles was formed in USA in 1977.
BHEL Hyderabad was the first organization in India to start
quality circles in 1982.

8. Kaoru Ishikawa (石川 馨, Ishikawa Kaoru, July 13, 1915 –
April 16, 1989) was a Japanese organizational theorist,
Professor at the Faculty of Engineering at The University of
Tokyo, noted for his quality management innovations.
He is considered a key figure in the development of quality
initiatives in Japan, particularly the quality circle.
He is best known outside Japan for the Ishikawa or cause
and effect diagram (also known as fishbone diagram) often
used in the analysis of industrial processes.
Contributions to improvement of quality
User Friendly Quality Control
Fishbone Cause and Effect Diagram - Ishikawa diagram
Implementation of Quality Circles
Emphasised the Internal customer

9. OBJECTIVES OF A QUALITY CIRCLE
The perception of quality circles is ‘Appropriateness for use’ and
the tactic implemented is to avert imperfection in services rather
than their verification and elimination later.
Quality circle is not a task force because it can be made a
permanent feature of the organization.

10. The objectives of a quality circle can be broadly characterized as given
below:
To contribute actively towards the improvement and development of
the organization.
To exist within the prevailing organizational structure to overcome
the barriers so as to foster an open exchange of ideas.
To develop a positive attitude and a feel of a sense of involvement in
the decision making process amongst the employees.
To help employees to respect humanity and to build a happy work
place worthwhile to work.
To display human capabilities completely and to draw out the
numerous possibilities in a long run.
To improve the quality of products and services.

11.  To improve various competencies. This is also one of the goals in all
organizations.
To reduce the cost and the wasteful efforts in the long run.
To improve efficiencies which in turn reduce the lead time resulting in
an improvement in meeting customers due dates.
Customer satisfaction is the fundamental goal for any organization.
Quality circles help in achieving this goal and help the organization to be
competitive for a long time.

12. METHODOLOGY
The structure of a quality circle is shown in Fig. 1. The basic elements in
the formation of a quality circle are
(i) top management
(ii) steering committee
(iii) coordinator or facilitator
(iv) leader
(v) members and
(vi) non member.

13. Top management plays an important role in ensuring the success of
implementation of quality circles in the organization.
Steering committees consisting of middle management are also to play a
positive role in quality circle activities for its success.
Coordinator who also acts as a facilitator is an individual in the organization
who has responsibilities for coordinating and directing the quality circle
activities within the organization and carries out such functions as would
make the operations of quality circles smooth, effective and self sustainable.
He is nominated by the management and also acts as a catalyst, innovator,
promoter and a guide. Leader of the quality circle is chosen by the members
among themselves.
 Since the members of the quality circles are the basic element in the
structure of the quality circle, they may decide to have a leader by rotation.

14. Members of the quality circles are the small group of employees
from the same work area or doing similar type of work.
Non members are those who are not members of the quality
circle but may be involved in the quality circle recommendations.

15. TECHNIQUES
Members of a quality circle normally use the following basic problem solving
techniques to identify, analyze and find solutions to the problem.
1. The members are to be properly trained in these techniques.
2. Identify exact problem being faced
3. Brainstorming within the team
4. Collection of relevant data from available sources
5. Analysis of the data using statistical tools like graphs, scatter diagrams,
pareto diagrams, cause and effect or fishbone diagram, histograms and
cumulative line diagram.
6. Use of problem solving techniques such as matrix diagrams, control charts,
the 3 Mu approach, the 5 Ws and 1 H concept, 4 M and 1 E approach and
many other techniques

17. Brainstorming is a method design teams use to generate
ideas to solve clearly defined design problems.
In controlled conditions and a free-thinking environment,
teams approach a problem by such means as “How Might
We” questions.
They produce a vast array of ideas and draw links between
them to find potential solutions.
Brainstorming is part of design thinking. You use it in
the ideation phase. It’s extremely popular for design teams
because they can expand in all directions.

18. Although teams have rules and a facilitator to keep them on
track, they are free to use out-of-the-box and lateral thinking to
seek the most effective solutions to any design problem.
By brainstorming, they can take a vast number of approaches—
the more, the better—instead of just exploring conventional
means and running into the associated obstacles.
When teams work in a judgment-free atmosphere to find the real
dimensions of a problem, they’re more likely to produce rough
answers which they’ll refine into possible solutions later.

19. LET’S GET TO KNOW
The Deming Prize is the longest-running and one of the highest
awards on TQM (Total Quality Management) in the world. It
recognizes both individuals for their contributions to the field
of Total Quality Management (TQM) and businesses that have
successfully implemented TQM.
 It was established in 1951 to honor W. Edwards Deming who
contributed greatly to Japan’s proliferation of statistical quality
control after World War II.

20. His teachings helped Japan build its foundation by which the level of
Japan’s product quality has been recognized as the highest in the world, was
originally designed to reward Japanese companies for major advances
in quality improvement.
Over the years it has grown, under the guidance of the Japanese Union of
Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) to where it is now also available to non-
Japanese companies, all be it usually operating in Japan, and also to
individuals recognized as having made major contributions to the
advancement of quality.
The awards ceremony is broadcast every year in Japan on national
television.

21. Statistics is the discipline that concerns the collection,
organization, analysis, interpretation and presentation
of data.
In applying statistics to a scientific, industrial, or social
problem, it is conventional to begin with a statistical
population or a statistical model to be studied

22. 1. FISHBONE DIAGRAMS
Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams, herringbone
diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, or Fishikawa) are causal
diagrams created by Kaoru Ishikawa that show the
potential causes of a specific event.
Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product design and
quality defect prevention to identify potential factors causing an
overall effect.
Each cause or reason for imperfection is a source of variation.
Causes are usually grouped into major categories to identify and
classify these sources of variation.

23. The defect is shown as the fish's head, facing to the right, with
the causes extending to the left as fishbones; the ribs branch off the backbone
for major causes, with sub-branches for root-causes, to as many levels as
required

26. 2. CHECK SHEET
The check sheet is a form (document) used to collect data
in real time at the location where the data is generated. The
data it captures can be quantitative or qualitative.
When the information is quantitative, the check sheet is
sometimes called a tally sheet

28. The defining characteristic of a check sheet is that data are recorded by
making marks ("checks") on it.
A typical check sheet is divided into regions, and marks made in different
regions have different significance.
Data are read by observing the location and number of marks on the sheet.
Check sheets typically employ a heading that answers the Five Ws:
1. Who filled out the check sheet
2. What was collected (what each check represents, an identifying batch or
lot number)
3. Where the collection took place (facility, room, apparatus)
4. When the collection took place (hour, shift, day of the week)
5. Why the data were collected.

29. Kaoru Ishikawa identified five uses for check sheets in quality control:
1. To check the shape of the probability distribution of a process
2. To quantify defects by type
3. To quantify defects by location
4. To quantify defects by cause (machine, worker)
5. To keep track of the completion of steps in a multistep procedure (in other
words, as a checklist)
“The very purpose of checklist is to list down the important checkpoints or
events in a tabular/metrics format and keep on updating or marking the
status on their occurrence which helps in understanding the progress, defect
patterns and even causes for defects.”

30. 3. HISTOGRAM
A histogram is an approximate representation of the distribution of
numerical data.
Bar chart; Used to graphically represent groups of data
It was first introduced by Karl Pearson. To construct a histogram, the first
step is to "bin" (or "bucket") the range of values—that is, divide the entire
range of values into a series of intervals—and then count how many values
fall into each interval.
The bins are usually specified as consecutive, non-overlapping intervals of a
variable. The bins (intervals) must be adjacent, and are often (but not
required to be) of equal size

32. CONSTRUCTING A HISTOGRAM
From a set of data compute
sum
mean (x)
Max
Min
Range (max-min)

33. CONSTRUCTING A
HISTOGRAM
1. Use range to estimate beginning and end
2. Calculate the width of each column by dividing the range
by the number of columns
Range
# of Columns
= Width

34. ACME PIZZA EXAMPLE
Let’s say the owner wants a distribution of Acme’s
Thursday Night Sales
Data Set from last Thursday(slices)
0 2 1 2 2 4 1 3 1 2 1 2 2 4 3 4 1 4 3 2 2 3 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 4 2 2 1 2 1
2 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 2 3 1 4 2 2 3 2 2 2 1 2 3
2 2 4 2 2 4 4 1 2 2 2 3 2 2 1 2 2 4 2 1 2 4 2 1 7 2 1 2 2 3 1 2 1 1 2 1 2
2 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 4 2 4

35. ACME PIZZA EXAMPLE
Mean = 2.032258
Max = 7
Min = 0
Range = 7
Range/Columns=7/7=1 slice

36. ACME PIZZA EXAMPLE
33
65
8
12
0 0 1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Slices of Pizza
Histogram

37. CONSTRUCTING A HISTOGRAM
How is this helpful to Acme?
2 slices of pizza most common order placed
Distribution of sales useful for forecasting next Thursday’s late night
demand.
If you were an Acme manager how could you apply this information?

38. PURPOSE OF HISTOGRAM
“The very purpose of Histogram is to study the density of data
in any given distribution and understand the factors or data
that repeat more often” .
Histogram helps in prioritizing factors and identify which are
the areas that needs utmost attention immediately.

39. 4. PARETO CHART
A Pareto chart is a type of chart that contains both bars and
a line graph, where individual values are represented in
descending order by bars, and the cumulative total is
represented by the line.
The chart is named for the Pareto principle, which, in turn,
derives its name from Vilfredo Pareto, a noted Italian
economist.

40. PARETO PRINCIPLE
The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule,
the law of the vital few, or the principle of factor sparsity)
 states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects
come from 20% of the causes

41. We can apply the 80/20 rule to almost anything:
80% of customer complaints arise from 20% of your products and
services.
80% of delays in the schedule result from 20% of the possible
causes of the delays.
20% of your products and services account for 80% of your profit.
20% of your sales force produces 80% of your company revenues.
20% of a systems defects cause 80% of its problems.

42. The left vertical axis is the frequency of occurrence, but it can alternatively
represent cost or another important unit of measure.
The right vertical axis is the cumulative percentage of the total number of
occurrences, total cost, or total of the particular unit of measure.
 To take the example below, in order to lower the amount of late arrivals by
78%, it is sufficient to solve the first three issues.
The purpose of the Pareto chart is to highlight the most important among a
(typically large) set of factors.
In quality control, it often represents the most common sources of defects, the
highest occurring type of defect, or the most frequent reasons for customer
complaints, and so on

46. 5. SCATTER DIAGRAM
Also called: scatter plot, X-Y graph
The scatter diagram graphs pairs of numerical data, with one
variable on each axis, to look for a relationship between them.
If the variables are correlated, the points will fall along a line
or curve.
The better the correlation, the tighter the points will hug the
line.
This cause analysis tool is considered one of the seven basic
quality tools.

47. “Very purpose of scatter Diagram is to establish a relationship
between problem (overall effect) and causes that are affecting”.
The relationship can be linear, curvilinear, exponential, logarithmic,
quadratic, polynomial etc. Stronger the correlation, stronger the
relationship will hold true.
The variables can be positively or negatively related defined by the
slope of equation derived from the scatter diagram.
Scatter diagram or scatter plot is basically a statistical tool that
depicts dependent variables on Y – Axis and Independent Variable
on X – axis plotted as dots on their common intersection points.
Joining these dots can highlight any existing relationship among these
variables or an equation in format Y = F(X) + C, where is C is an
arbitrary constant.

49. 6. CONTROL CHART (SHEWHART CHART)
Control chart is also called as Shewhart Chart named after Walter A.
Shewhart is basically a statistical chart which helps in determining if an
industrial process is within control and capable to meet the customer
defined specification limits.
“The very purpose of control chart is to determine if the process is
stable and capable within current conditions.”
In Control Chart, data are plotted against time in X-axis. Control chart
will always have a central line (average or mean), an upper line for the
upper control limit and a lower line for the lower control limit. These
lines are determined from historical data.

50. By comparing current data to these lines, experts can draw
conclusions about whether the process variation is consistent (in
control, affected by common causes of variation) or is
unpredictable (out of control, affected by special causes of
variation).
 It helps in differentiating common causes from special cause of
variation.
Control charts are very popular and vastly used in Quality Control
Techniques, Six Sigma (Control Phase) and also plays an important
role in defining process capability and variations in productions. This
tool also helps in identifying how well any manufacturing process is in
line with respect to customer’s expectation.
Control chart helps in predicting process performance,
understand the various production patterns and study how a
process changes or shifts from normally specified control limits

52. 7. STRATIFICATION (DIVIDE AND
CONQUER)
Stratification is a method of dividing data into sub–categories
and classify data based on group, division, class or levels that
helps in deriving meaningful information to understand an
existing problem.
“The very purpose of Stratification is to divide the data and
conquer the meaning full Information to solve a problem”.

53. Un–stratified data (An employee reached late to office on
following dates)
5-Jan, 12-Jan,13-Jan, 19-Jan, 21-Jan, 26-Jan,27-Jan
stratified data

54. A technique that separates data gathered from a variety of
sources so that patterns can be seen (some lists replace
stratification with flowchart or run chart).

55. 5W AND 2H- APPROACH
5W2H (who, what, where, when, why, how) is a method of
asking questions about a process or a problem taken up for
improvement.
Five of the W’s (who, what, where, when) and the two H is
used to comprehend for details, analyze inferences and
judgment to get to the fundamental facts and guide statements
to get to the abstraction.

56. The 5W2H method is thus called to simplify the guidelines involved in
each phase of the action plan to which it proposes.
Do you know what 5W2H is?
It’s easy! These are the seven questions it represents. Five start with W
and 2 with H.
Check out these questions:
What?
Why?
Where?
When?
Who?
How?
How much?

57. This is a brief explanation of each of the questions, in the order in
which they should be analyzed:

58. In short, it is an effective administrative tool. And because of its
simplicity, it can be used by small, medium, and large companies that
wish to record in an orderly and systematic manner their actions
and workflows, from the simple scheduling of meetings to the most
complex project executions.
And do you know who created the 5W2H tool? It was Japanese!
Always looking for practical and intuitive ways to organize things …
The 5W2H is a well-used tool for the creation of action plans,
although it’s not the only way to do it.

59. 3MU’S
The Toyota Production System, and later on the concept of Lean, was
developed around eliminating the three types of deviations that shows
inefficient allocation of resources.
The three types are Muda (無駄, waste), Mura (斑, unevenness), and
Muri (無理, overburden).

60. Muda (無駄)
Muda means wastefulness, uselessness and futility,
which is contradicting value-addition.
Value-added work is a process that adds value to the
product or service that the customer is willing to pay
for.
There are two types of Muda, Type 1 and Type 2.
Muda
Type 1 includes non-value-added activities in the
processes that are necessary for the end customer. For
example, inspection and safety testing does not
directly add value to the final product; however, they
are necessary activities to ensure a safe product for
customers.
Muda Type 2 includes non-value added activities in
the processes, but these activities are unnecessary for
the customer. As a result, Muda Type 2 should be

61. There are seven categories of waste under Muda Type 2 that follow the
abbreviation TIMWOOD.
The seven wastes are (1) Transport i.e. excess movement of product, (2)
Inventory i.e. stocks of goods and raw materials, (3) Motion i.e. excess
movement of machine or people, (4) Waiting, (5) Overproduction, (6) Over-
processing, and (7) Defects.

62. WASTES IN ANY INDUSTRY

63. Mura (斑)
Mura means unevenness, non-uniformity, and
irregularity. Mura is the reason for the existence of any
of the seven wastes. In other words, Mura drives and
leads to Muda. For example, in a manufacturing line,
products need to pass through several workstations
during the assembly process. .
When the capacity of one station is greater than the
other stations, you will see an accumulation of waste
in the form of overproduction, waiting, etc. The goal
of a Lean production system is to level out the
workload so that there is no unevenness or waste
accumulation.
Mura can be avoided through the Just-In-Time
‘Kanban’ systems and other pull-based strategies that
limits overproduction and excess inventory. The key
concept of a Just-In-Time system is delivering and
producing the right part, at the right amount, and at
the right time.

64. Muri (無理)
Muri means overburden, beyond one’s power,
excessiveness, impossible or unreasonableness.
Muri can result from Mura and in some cases be
caused by excessive removal of Muda (waste)
from the process.
 Muri also exists when machines or operators
are utilized for more than 100% capability to
complete a task or in an unsustainable way. Muri
over a period of time can result in employee
absenteeism, illness, and breakdowns of
machines. Standardize work can help avoid
Muri by designing the work processes to evenly
distribute the workload and not overburden any
particular employee or equipment.

65. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
MUDA, MURA AND MURI
Muda, Mura, and Muri are interrelated. Eliminating one of them will affect
the other two. For example, a firm that needs to transport 6 tons of materials
to a customer has several options (Lean Enterprise Institute, 2016).

66. FOR EXAMPLE : CONSIDER THE BELOW SITUATION
1. 6 Cartons are to be delivered from point A to point B. What are the
possibilities of Eliminating Muda, Muri, Mura??????

67. The first option is to load one truck with all 6 tons and make a single trip.
However in this example, it would be considered Muri due to the overburden
of the truck. This excess load can lead to a breakdown.
The second option is to divide the transportation into two trips. One with
two tons and the other with four tons.
This would be considered Mura since the unevenness of the arrival of
materials to the customer can lead to problems at the receiving dock. In the
first trip, the delivery may be too little for the production necessary on-site.
In the second trip, the amount of delivered material may be too much for on-
site storage and material handling.

68. This leads to Muri since one of the truck is overburden and the receiver is
also overburden for that delivery. Additionally, Muda can be seen from the
uneven workload. This can cause employees who receive the materials to wait
around.
The third option is to load two tons on each truck and make three trips.
Even though this option has no Mura and Muri, it has Muda since the truck
would not be fully loaded on each trip. Each truck can carry up to 3 tons of
material and this option makes one unnecessary trip.

69. The fourth option is to deliver the materials with two trucks each with 3
tons. In this example, this would be the optimal level that minimizes Muda,
Mura, and Muri. Muda does not exist because the trucks are carrying the
loads at their maximum capacity.
There is no excess capacity nor unnecessary trips with this strategy. Mura
does not exist because the workload between the two deliveries are uniform.
As a result, there is no unevenness.
And finally, Muri is absent from this option because both the truck and the
operators are not working beyond their capacity.
In real world applications of Lean, it is not always easy or possible to find an
optimal solution. Reducing Muda can lead to Muri. The existence of Mura
can be seen as a waste in Muda.

70. And finally Muri can lead to a breakdown in the system that will result in a
large amount of Muda and Mura.
Since real world problems are dynamic and the needs of customers are always
changing, our work processes must also change as well.
As we design our processes and standardize our work, we must look at the
resulting system from the lens of these three concepts. Only by considering
the impacts of Muda, Mura, and Muri and optimizing our production
strategy can we develop an efficient Lean system.

72. THANK YOU