Quality Circles

Fundamentals

In general, the Japanese scholar Kaoru Ishikawa is regarded as the father of quality circles. The term he used for them was quality control circles. He emphasized the following characteristics:

• The circle is a small group of people who perform quality control activities.
• The members participate on a voluntary basis.
• The members are recruited from the same workshop.
• The activities of the circle carry on continuously.
• The activities of the circle constitute an integrated part of the company-wide quality control activities.
• The activities include self-development, mutual development, control, and improvement within the workshop.
• Quality control techniques are used.
• All members participate actively.

The overall purpose of the quality circles is the improvement and development of the enterprise as a part of the company-wide quality control activities. Nevertheless, Ishikawa also held that the circles should respect humanity and build a happy, bright work environment that is worthwhile to participate in. Moreover, he argued that they should exercise human capabilities fully and eventually draw out infinite possibilities.

The main points that have been retained from Ishikawa’s work are that the participation should be voluntary and active and that the activities should continue for a fairly long time. In addition, the group should use improvement tools such as Ishikawa’s seven basic tools for quality and the seven new tools for improvement. The members of the quality circle are assigned different roles. Usually, the following roles are defined as follows: