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Quality Circles Handbook - currently changing hands on Amazon.com at approximately £95 per copy!
Preface
In the late 1960s America's Dr J. M. Juran commented: `The Quality Control Circle movement is a tremendous one which no other country seems able to imitate. Through the development of this movement Japan will be swept to world leadership in Quality'.
In June 1966 the European Organisation for Quality Control held an extended conference session at its conference in Stockholm to discuss the phenomenon of QC Circles, and by that time the majority of Western leaders in the field of Quality Control were aware of the concept. I know I was aware of Circles as long ago as 1969 because I have an examination paper that I prepared in that year with a question asking students to compare Quality Circles with zero defects-a concept quite popular in the West at that time. However, mv impression of Circles then was little different from that of others acquainted with the concept. Quality Circles were Japanese, and all I then knew of the Japanese was that they supposedly sang the Company Song each morning, participated in physical jerks at intervals during the day and punched effigies of their bosses at break times. It never occurred either to me or to others that there was anything the Japanese were doing that could be practically transferred to our society and culture. However, as we came into and through the 1970s I became increasingly concerned about two major problems in our industrial society, both of which prompted me to take a closer look at Quality Circles.
1. ! formed the belief that Western approaches to Quality Control based entirely on Quality Assurance were fundamentally wrong and
2. Whilst there has been a widespread awareness of the need for greater worker involvement or participation, we have never been able to find a satisfactory vehicle that is attractive to all levels and groups within an organisation, and to society in general.
By the mid 1970s my concern for both of these problems, combined with a greater understanding of the Quality Circle concept, led me to believe that, first of all there was nothing inherently Japanese in Quality Circles at all; it simply represented another way of treating people. Secondly, it provided a form of worker involvement which could not only overcome my misgivings about Western Quality Control, but if properly understood would be extremely attractive, both to.................. |