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Manufacturing Systems
Published in Leo Alting, Geoffrey Boothroyd, Manufacturing Engineering Processes, 2020
Leo Alting, Geoffrey Boothroyd
Quality control is another area where new approaches have been applied. Quality of raw materials and manufacturing processes is essential in JIT manufacturing, with buffers and inventories reduced to a minimum. There is no time for inspection of incoming goods; they are supplied directly to the assembly line. Their quality is a responsibility of the supplier and based on the relationship of trust gained through the long-term collaboration between manufacturer and supplier. The production quality control responsibility is delegated down the organization to the lowest possible level to eliminate the production of huge batches of components with bad quality. The operators are responsible for the quality of parts produced at their workstation, and they are educated and provided the right tools for controlling the parts produced, planning the actions needed, and implementing these corrections without assistance from a supervisor. Furthermore, quality circles are a deeply rooted part of the culture in many Japanese manufacturing enterprises. A quality circle is a group of 5 to 10 employees who meet on a regular basis discussing how to improve manufacturing quality. Japanese companies educate the participants of quality circles in systematic techniques for problem solving that are essential to their achievements.
Managing for Quality
Published in K. S. Krishnamoorthi, V. Ram Krishnamoorthi, Arunkumar Pennathur, A First Course in Quality Engineering, 2018
K. S. Krishnamoorthi, V. Ram Krishnamoorthi, Arunkumar Pennathur
Quality circles are teams of employees mainly working in one area and reporting to the same supervisor, who have come together voluntarily to solve problems relating to the quality of a product or service created in that department. The problems could also be related to safety, environment, or other conditions in the work area that are of concern to the team. The concept of the quality circle originated in Japan as a way of utilizing the knowledge and expertise of workers in solving quality problems, to complement the use of statistical and other technical methods. The Japanese workforce enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to help employers by volunteering their time and knowledge to solve problems relating to quality. The volunteer teams, originally known as “quality control circles” (QCCs), were given training in basic techniques of quality improvement and problem solving in order to be more effective in their activities.
Going Beyond Managing—Improving Existing Services and Processes
Published in Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes, Vikas Kumar, Juan Luis Martinez-Covarrubias, Ming K. Lim, Managing Innovation and Operations in the 21st Century, 2017
Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes, Vikas Kumar, Juan Luis Martinez-Covarrubias, Ming K. Lim
Another technique normally employed by organizations to eliminate the gap between customer’s expectation and perception of a product or service is quality circle. A quality circle is a small group of workers, which meet voluntarily and regularly to discuss and collectively propose solutions to operational problems faced by their departments and organizations. This idea of collective work to improvement is inspired from the philosophies of quality gurus such as Deming, Ishikawa, and Juran, who believed that getting quality right and also improving it are the responsibilities of all employees. This idea also departs from the general belief that shop-floor employees who spend most of their day carrying out certain operational activities can therefore be considered the experts of what they do. These experts are more likely to find a faster and more effective solution to their work problems if they work collectively. Therefore, quality circle aims to tackle and solve the operational and quality problems identified through the gap analysis by encouraging team work.
Developing a quality function deployment model for the Ethiopian leather industry: Requirements and solutions under linguistic variables
Published in Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 2023
Sisay Addis Filketu, Yeneneh Tamirat Negash
When employees participate in decision making, they perceive their occupation as being more enjoyable, thus enhancing their job involvement in organizations and their morale, promoting their skill development, and enabling them to implement QIS. Moreover, employee participation in decision making improves their problem identification and idea development capabilities and enhances the performance of organizations in QIS [20]. Participation in decision making can be executed by involving employees in a quality circle to make quality-related decisions and empowering them to satisfy self-actualization needs by solving quality problems. Furthermore, Addis et al. 1 highlighted that creating room for employee participation in product design and planning enables employees to utilize their latent innovativeness and creativity and, as a result, QIS.
Work and sleep quality in railway employees: an actigraphy study
Published in Ergonomics, 2020
Christin Gerhardt, Maria Undine Kottwitz, Tarsia Jana Lüdin, Dominique Gabriel, Achim Elfering
The person-oriented approach to sleep in workers and employees thus far includes sleep extension on weekends, especially for those who sleep fewer than 6 h after workdays (Kubo et al. 2011). After work, online sleep training interventions (including mindfulness training) were confirmed to increase sleep quality (Ebert et al. 2015; Thiart et al. 2015). Moreover, cognitive-behavioural stress management was shown to improve sleep quality (e.g. Querstret et al. 2016). Meanwhile, a randomised controlled trial (Dalgaard et al. 2014) showed occupational stress management training to have only very small effects on sleep quality and the reduction of cognitive failure. Recently, a rather short education-based occupational sleep intervention (Nakada et al. 2018) was shown to improve actigraphy-based sleep indicators. Even if person-oriented approaches show good results in improving sleep, besides treating the symptom we can also work at the source. By applying organisational interventions, we can shape and adapt employees’ working conditions, for example by decreasing time pressure and enhancing time control. Because our research shows that time control independently has an effect on sleep quality, it is an important factor to consider in job redesign. To increase control, self-rostering interventions seem to be a promising opportunity in railway employees. A self-rostering intervention applied among caregivers who had to work 24/7 improved sleep quality and decreased somatic symptoms and mental distress (Garde et al. 2012). Because increasing time control during the work shift is rather unlikely due to default schedules, at least participation in planning work shifts and days off can be an auspicious resource to foster time control in general. To decrease time pressure during shifts, a rescheduling of the railways’ timetables could be auspicious by allowing more breaks to be taken, more time buffer, and more flexibility. Letting employees participate in restructuring by means of quality circles helps them shape their own working conditions and environment. The implementation of quality circles has been shown to significantly improve job satisfaction and the quality of work life (Hosseinabadi et al. 2013). The Participatory Ergonomics approach summarises the idea of involving employees in planning and controlling their own work activities as much as possible while having adequate knowledge and power to affect processes and outcomes for achieving desired goals (Wilson and Haines 1997). Especially within the scope of control, for an in-depth analysis, future studies should also consider both working conditions and conditions in private life.