Page 195 - DMGT501_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Unit 6: Quality Assurance and Control

7. Expenses for inspection and testing are reduced. Notes
8. Contracts between vendor and vendee are rationalized.
9. The sales market is enlarged.
10. Better relationships are established between departments.
11. False data and reports are reduced.
12. Discussions are carried out more freely and democratically.
13. Meetings are operated more smoothly.
14. Repairs and installation of equipment and facilities are done more rationally.

15. Human relations are improved.
One major characteristic of Japanese Company-Wide Quality Control is the Quality Control
Circle Movement started in 1962, with the first circle being registered with the Nippon Telegraph
and Telephone Public Corporation. Starting in industry in Japan, these have now spread to
banks and retailing, and been exported world-wide. Success in the West has not been as extensive
as in Japan, however, although even there have been limitations too. The nature and role of
quality circles varies between companies. In Japan a quality circle is a typically voluntary group
of some 5-10 workers from the same workshop, who meet regularly and are led by a foreman,
assistant foreman, work leader or one of the workers. The aims of the quality circle activities
are:
1. To contribute to the improvement and development of the enterprise,
2. To respect human relations and build a happy workshop offering job satisfaction,

3. To deploy human capabilities fully and draw out infinite potential.
These aims are broader than is consistent with a narrow definition of quality as often used in the
West, and Circle activities reflect this. The members of the circle have mastered statistical
quality control and related methods and all utilize them to achieve significant results in quality
improvement, cost reduction, productivity and safety. The seven tools of quality control are
taught to all employees:
1. Pareto charts
2. Cause and effects diagrams

3. Stratification
4. Check sheets
5. Histograms
6. Scatter diagrams

7. Shewharts control charts and graphs.
All members of the circle are continuously engaged in self-and-mutual development, control
and improvement whenever possible, the circles implement solutions themselves, otherwise
they put strong pressure on management to introduce them. Since management is already
committed to the circles, it is ready to listen or act. Circle members receive no direct financial
reward for their improvements.
The Japanese experience of quality circles itself provides an insight into the problems of
implementation in the West. Strangely enough, however, many companies in the West have
attempted to minimize or even cover up the Japanese origins, apparently to avoid cultural

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