Quality circles and kaizen

Cards (2)

  • Quality Circles
    • Quality circles meet at regular intervals to discuss quality control issues
    • They use the knowledge of employees from various departments and all levels of the organisation
    • Quality circles aim to identify and solve specific quality problems that arise
    • They're a great way to get staff involved and can lead to increased motivation and productivity
    • However, suggestions can often be unrealistic and management may not listen to the floor staff
  • Kaizen (continuous improvement)
    • The kaizen approach is a lean production method - employees should be improving their work slightly all the time, instead of just making one-off improvements
    • This reduces waste as employees are constantly evaluating the way they work and finding ways to be more efficient
    • To have a culture of continuous improvement in a business, employees need to know how to suggest improvements - there needs to be appointed people who will listen to workers and help to implement any ideas they have
    • Employees need to be encouraged to question why a problem has occurred and even employees at the bottom of the hierarchy have to be given some control over decision-making
    • Kaizen helps workers feel involved in quality assurance. It's also cheap for the business to introduce
    • The downside of kaizen is that, because it makes small changes over time, it's not great for urgently improving quality. It needs the business to be willing to commit to the method in the long term