 A steering committee: This is at the top of the structure.

It is headed by a senior executive and

includes representatives from the top management personnel and human resources
development people. It establishes policy, plans and directs the program and meets usually once
in a month.

 Co-ordinator: He may be a Personnel or Administrative officer who co-ordinates and supervises

the work of the facilitators and administers the program.

 Facilitator: Also acts as a catalyst, innovator, promoter and teacher and is nominated by
the management. His duties are as follows:
Communicating with all levels of management and obtaining their support and assistance;
Providing training to QCC leaders and assisting in training of QCC members where required;
Maintaining an open and supportive environment;
Ensuring QCC members direct their activities to work-related problems;
As a mediator in problem-solving;
As a resource person to the Circle;
Evaluating the costs and benefits of the QCC programme and reporting to the Management.

 Circle leader : Circle leader may be from lowest level supervisors. A circle leader organise and
conduct circle activities.

 Circle members : They may be staff workers. Without circle members the program cannot exist.
They are the lifeblood of quality circles. They should attend all meetings as far as possible, offer
suggestions and ideas, participate actively in group process.

PROCESS OF OPERATION
1 Problem identification: Identify a number of problems.

The following are few common waste types that should be kept in mind while identifying
problems or scope of improvement:

1. Transport
Waste in transportation includes movement of people, tools, inventory, equipment, or
products further than necessary. Excessive movement of materials can lead to product damage
and defects. Additionally, excessive movement of people and equipment can lead to
unnecessary work, greater wear and tear, and exhaustion.
2. Inventory
Often times it is difficult to think about excess inventory as waste. In accounting, inventory is
seen as an asset and oftentimes suppliers give discount for bulk purchases. But having more
inventory than necessary to sustain a steady flow of work can lead to problems including:
product defects or damage materials, greater lead time in the production process, an inefficient
allocation of capital, and problems being hidden away in the inventory. Manufacturing
inventory waste could include broken machines sitting around, more finished products than
demanded, extra materials taking up work space, and finished products that cannot be sold.
3. Motion
The waste in motion includes any unnecessary movement of people, equipment, or machinery.
This includes walking, lifting, reaching, bending, stretching, and moving. Tasks that require
excessive motion should be redesigned to enhance the work of personnel and increase the
health and safety levels. In the office, wasted motion can include walking, reaching to get
materials, searching for files, sifting through inventory to find what is needed, excess mouse
clicks, and double entry of data. Manufacturing motion waste can include repetitive
movements that do not add value to the customer, reaching for materials, walking to get a tool
or materials, and readjusting a component after it has been installed.
4. Waiting
The waste of waiting includes: 1) people waiting on material or equipment and 2) idle
equipment. Waiting time is often caused by unevenness in the production stations and can
result in excess inventory and overproduction.In the office, waiting waste can include waiting
for others to respond to an email, having files waiting for review, ineffective meetings, and
waiting for the computer to load a program. In the manufacturing facility, waiting waste can
include waiting for materials to arrive, waiting for the proper instructions to start
manufacturing, and having equipment with insufficient capacity.
5. Overproduction
Overproduction occurs when manufacturing a product or an element of the product before it is
being asked for or required. It may be tempting to produce as many products as possible when
there is idle worker or equipment time. However, rather than producing products just when
they are needed under the ‘Just In Time’ philosophy, the ‘Just In Case’ way of working leads a
host of problems including preventing smooth flow of work, higher storage costs, hiding
defects inside the WIP, requiring more capital expenditure to fund the production process, and
excessive lead-time. Additionally, over-producing a product also leads to an increase in
likelihood that the product or quantities of products produced are beyond the customer’s
requirements.In an office environment, overproduction could include making extra copies,
creating reports no one reads, providing more information than needed, and providing a
service before the customer is ready.
6. Over-processing
Over-processing refers to doing more work, adding more components, or having more steps in
a product or service than what is required by the customer. In manufacturing this could include
using a higher precision equipment than necessary, using components with capacities beyond
what is required, running more analysis than needed, over-engineering a solution, adjusting a
component after it has already been installed, and having more functionalities in a product
than needed. In the office, over-processing can include generating more detailed reports than
needed, having unnecessary steps in the purchasing process, requiring unnecessary signatures
on a document, double entry of data, requiring more forms than needed, and having an extra
step in a workflow.
7. Defects
Defects occurs when the product is not fit for use. This typically results in either reworking or
scrapping the product. Both results are wasteful as they add additional costs to the operations
without delivering any value to the customer. Here are four countermeasures for defects.
Firstly, look for the most frequent defect and focus on it. Secondly, design a process to detect
abnormalities and do not pass any defective items along the process. Thirdly, redesign the
process so that does not lead to defects. Lastly, use standardize work to ensure a consistent
manufacturing/ service process that is defect free.

8. Skills - The 8th Waste

Even though it was not part of the Toyota Production System (TPS), many people are well
aware of the 8th waste - the waste of human potential. The 8th waste is also described as the
waste of unused human talent and ingenuity. This waste occurs when organizations separate
the role of management from employees. In some organizations, management’s responsibility
is planning, organizing, controlling, and innovating the production process. The employee’s role
is to simply follow orders and execute the work as planned. By not engaging the frontline
worker’s knowledge and expertise, it is difficult to improve processes. This is due to the fact
that the people doing the work are the ones who are most capable of identifying problems and
developing solutions for them.In the office, non-utilized talent could include insufficient
training, poor incentives, not asking for employee feedback, and placing employees in positions
below their skills and qualifications. In manufacturing, this waste can be seen when employees
are poorly trained, employees not knowing how to effectively operate equipment, when
employees are given the wrong tool for the job, and when employees are not challenged to
come up with ideas to improve the work.
2 Problem selection : Decide the priority and select the problem to be taken up first.

Using business criteria, teams should prioritize projects & select projects from the top of
prioritized list for immediate work.One of the best way to prioritize the projects is to create a
selection matrix with defined criteria & a numerical ranking system.
In the example below we applied a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being most negative & 10 being
most positive.

Teams can chose their own criteria for selection matrix or they can use the Project viability
model as defined below:

3 Problem Analysis : Problem is clarified and analyzed by basic problem solving methods.
a) Brain storming
b) Pareto analysis
c) Cause & Effect Analysis
d) Data Collection & Analysis

4 Generate alternative solutions : Identify and evaluate causes and generate number of
possible alternative solutions.

5 Select the most appropriate solution : Discuss and evaluate the alternative solutions by
comparisons. This enables to select the most appropriate solution.

6 Prepare 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.

7 Present solution to management circle: Members present solution to management for

approval.
 8. Implementation of solution : The management evaluates the recommended solution. Then it
is tested and if successful, implemented on a full scale .

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN QUALITY CIRCLE AND LEAN QUALITY CIRCLE

Sl.
Particulars Quality Circle Lean Quality Circle
No
1. Concept The main objective of Quality Circles is LQC is applied to turn out large number
“self” and mutual development, cohesive of small projects to meet company’s
team work and engaged in continuous objective / goal. Hence this is an acid
improvement activities, thus improving test for those who have formed QC for
their quality of work life”. their self and mutual development and
have learnt to analyse and solve the
problem.
2. Identification QC Members with the help of Round In LQC, problems can be taken from
of Problem Robin Method, try to identify their own the problem bank. Instant problem can
day to day also be taken. LQC mainly concentrates
work related problems which are of a to take the
recurring nature. project resulting in value addition or
reduction / elimination of different
types of wastes aligned to company’s
goals.
3. Problem Identified problems are segregated into Anyone can select the problem from
Selection A, B & C categories. “A” simple problem problem bank or with his / her own
is taken first, and “C” the toughest initiative any problem relating to loss of
problem will be taken at the end of “B” quality, production loss, wastage
type of reduction, non value adding processes
problems. etc and consensus arrived at.
4. Meetings We all know that QC’s have periodic Generally LQC members discuss their
regular meetings to discuss, analyse and problems at the work place where the
final problem has occurred. Meetings are
solutions to the problems on a pre-fixed based on project needs., it may be
schedule. even three times in a day.
5. Problem QC’s follow the 12 steps methodology In the case of LQC’s, they will follow
Solving Steps evolved by us, starting from the 5steps of DMAIC approach: That is:
identification of (i) Defining of Problem
problems to solution, implementation, (ii) Measure the Problem
follow up and review. (iii) Analyse the problem to find out the
root cause.
(iv) Suggest improvement (solution)
(v) Control it by not allowing it
to slip back.
6. Approval of Project will have to be approved by the LQC’s, project also will have to be
project Steering Committee or the executives approved by the Steering Committee or
nominated by the Steering Committee. the executives nominated by the
Steering Committee.
7. Gains In the case of QC’s, the whole objective In the case of LQC’s, it is directly
is to “develop people”. In other words, measurable with respect to
self and mutual development through organizational goals in terms of not
QC activities. Hence, the focus is not in only process improvement, but also
terms of how much improvements in quality, cost reduction
money is gained through the project / and faster delivery. So this reflects on
problem solving. the bottom line gains.