A market economy is a constant and irreconcilable struggle for customers, finances and high-level specialists. Any production begins with the labor of each employee and depends on the personal contribution of each employee to the common business of the company. Only if this condition is met can a competitive high-tech production be built. The problem of employee incentives is especially acute in large industrial enterprises. Not always raising salaries leads to an increase in the results of company employees. You can stimulate creativity and employee interest through quality control circles.
Mugs of quality over 40 years of its existence have allowed a number of companies to take a leading position in the world. At the moment, there are about a million quality circles that unite more than ten million people in the USA, Japan, China, South Korea, Germany and another 50 countries.
Definition
In addition to the product quality management systems existing at the enterprise, the activities of which are aimed at improving the quality characteristics of the final product, many enterprises introduce quality circles in the working environment. This experience is applied, as a rule, at foreign enterprises. Many leaders in our country mistakenly believe that this system cannot exist in Russia, especially in small enterprises. But this judgment is fundamentally wrong.
Mugs of quality - this is a form of stimulation of working groups consisting of 5-10 people. At the heart of the circles is everyone's personal interest in improving the product and simplifying the work process. Groups hold meetings, on average, once a week. The agenda includes issues of product quality, labor productivity, speed of work, deadlines, working conditions, compliance with safety regulations, team relationships and many others.
Meetings are held before the start of the working day or after completion of work. For discussion, employees of one workshop or department are involved, as well as senior managers. So employees have the opportunity to express their opinion directly to the bosses, avoiding paperwork and saving time. The management gets the opportunity to quickly solve urgent tasks requiring the permission of higher authorities. For managers, the quality circles are an opportunity to listen to the ideas of employees to improve the work process and evaluate the creative potential of each employee.
The experience of Japanese specialists
Mugs of quality invented by Japanese experts. In the 60s of the last century, heads of Japanese companies began to face a decline in the quality of their products. The reason was a decrease in the degree of satisfaction of workers with monotonous work and simple tasks. Cash compensation has ceased to have a stimulating effect. Prizes grew, and the quality of work remained unchanged. This was mainly due to the development of the quality of education in Japan. Higher education in Japan have about 93% of the population, this is the best indicator in the world. Workers required intellectual work, involvement in solving complex production problems.
How did quality circles appear in Japan? Employees of the enterprise independently began to unite in small groups to discuss current problems and an agreed search for their solutions. Noticing the trend, company managers began to stimulate such an initiative and encourage it. Meetings that go beyond working hours began to be paid. And to quickly resolve issues, these meetings of employees began to attend top managers.
The emergence of Japanese quality circles encouraged workers around the world to create similar initiative groups that sought to organize defect-free production, discussed safety issues, technical support, and much more. The experience of workers from Japan was greeted with incredible enthusiasm. This model is also used in automated production. With the help of such circles, retraining of workers who were replaced by robots takes place.
Quality Circle Ideas
The essence of quality circles comes down to a set of ideas:
- Groups are created to improve quality indicators in production, to eliminate defects in products and to reduce the percentage of rejects.
- Mugs are designed to increase the economic performance of the enterprise, reduce production costs.
- Groups are a strong motivational impetus for employees and increase the level of corporate culture.
- Quality circles are a way of creating democratic relations with a high degree of respect for each member of the team and his work.
- The teams stimulate the involvement of all levels of company management in the production process.
- Mugs of quality strengthen healthy competition among employees and contribute to the prompt resolution of conflict situations.
- Group work distracts workers from solving everyday problems at the workplace and increases the degree of their involvement in the production process.
Quality Circle Goals
The goals of creating quality circles in the enterprise:
- Search for new ways of effective management on the part of managers and heads of lower-level workshops.
- Improving the moral attitude of workers to the production process, creating conditions for the independent development of employees.
- The interest of each person in the group in improving the quality characteristics, reducing the level of marriage and defects in products.
Group creation
The quality circle method requires the involvement of certain workers and the exclusion of others. The group should be holistic and consist of people interested in improving the quality of work and self-improvement. At the same time, each member must fulfill their functions and help the rest of the team.
Who should be attracted?
- Informal group leaders . To identify such employees in a team, it is enough to invite each of them to submit a proposal for discussion. Those whose proposals will receive the most positive feedback will be informal leaders.
- Workers whose professional experience is not in doubt. Such a person has great authority among colleagues and has sufficient skills and abilities to train other employees.
- Enthusiasts. Even provided that these people in the team are “new”, such cadres are able to quickly learn and pass on their interest to other members of the team.
Who should be excluded
This question is of fundamental importance to many. Nobody wants to become superfluous. However, the experience of Japanese experts suggests that the following workers should be excluded from the circle:
- Relatives of the commanding staff. This can cause a negative reaction in the group.
- Those employees whose opinion is ignored by the group.
- Workers who are in a difficult life situation (debts, divorce), since they will not be able to fully concentrate on solving work problems for any motivation.
- Negatively minded workers. This category includes people who are poorly related to their business, organization, the idea of creating quality circles.
- Conflicting people. They undermine the atmosphere in the team and poorly accept new ideas.
Stages of construction
Let's see how such circles are created.
- Presentation of ideas for potential members of the group. At this stage, you need to talk about the system of quality circles, the idea and the mission. We should not miss the question of obtaining the benefits of the participants. If the company already has positive experience in introducing circles, then it is worth mentioning it. The main thing is to interest.
- Define roles. It is necessary to determine who will play the role of leader, who will fix all ideas on paper, who will introduce new tasks in production.
- Conducting classes. To do this, select a non-working watch. According to research by Japanese companies, efficiency can be achieved by conducting classes 2 times a month for 1.5 hours. Next, you need to determine the methodology for creating the agenda. For example, ask participants in advance what they would like to discuss at the upcoming meeting.
- Discussion and fixing of results. Here it is worthwhile to pre-negotiate with the participants etiquette, which they must adhere to during the speech of colleagues. In addition, it is worth considering how the most effective solutions will be selected. Voting is possible.
- Implementation. The task of quality circles is not only to discuss and introduce new technology in their workplace, but also to introduce the rest of the team to innovation.
Quality circles in the USSR and Russia
It's not a secret that everything new is well forgotten old. And in the 80s of the last century, they began to successfully introduce quality circles in the USSR. In 1990, the number of circles reached 55 thousand. Many modern Russian enterprises continue this tradition. Often, quality circles in Russia are called "talkers." Meetings are held once or twice a month. They discuss current problems and ways to solve them. Now they are trying to introduce quality circles not only in industrial production, but also in other areas of activity. This is important because in the battle for entering the export market, quality is a key issue. There are international standards that not all Russian companies comply with yet.
Conclusion
Mugs of quality are an almost free way to improve the quality of the final product, involve heads of departments and workers in the process of creating products, improving production technology, and creating a competitive environment among employees. Each participant feels their involvement in the affairs of the company, participates in its development and leadership. All this leads to increased profits and to further development of the enterprise.