Quality Circles

The development of the concept of quality circles (QCs) can be dated back to 1962, when Kaoru Ishikawa (a Japanese organizational theorist best known for the Ishikawa, or cause-and-effect or fishbone, diagram) used QCs as a means to help Japanese organizations to survive and recover from the ravages of World War II. To establish a national impetus for the betterment of quality, a national training program was launched in 1962, and this in turn led to the development of QCs as a platform for employee involvement in quality and productivity programs. What is seen as constituting the nature, strength, and follow-up of the widespread application of QCs in Japan was the importance of foreperson training and of development programs in quality control techniques. To give ...