qc - a powerful productivity enhancement tool

8/6/2019 QC - A Powerful Productivity Enhancement Tool

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E n h a n c i n g P r o d u c t i v i ty t h r o u g h P e o p l e

Involvement

-- A Quality Circle Approach at VSP RINL

A l o k e K u m a r D u t t aA u t h o r

D r . D P r a b h a k a r R a o

G u i d e


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-- A Quality Circle Approach at VSP - RINL

E n h a n c i n g P r o d u c t i v i t y t h r o u g h P e o p l e I n v o l v e m e n t

Quality Circle -- Genesis

Japan, consequent upon total devastation inSecond World War, had requested American

experts to help them put their shattered

economic and industrial scenario back to rails.

The then newly formed Union of Japanese

Scientists and Engineers was familiar with Dr.

W.Edward Deming's work and invited him to

Japan in 1950 to advise the Allied occupation

government. Accepting JUSE's invitation, Deming

addressed Japanese industry's top 50 executives

expaining the importance and need of StatisticalQuality Control and Quality Management in

different organizations of Japan.Deming's ideas

became very influential in Japan, and in 1951,

JUSE established the annual corporate and

individual Deming awards for achievements in

quality improvement. A 1954 lecture series in

Japan by American quality control expert Dr. J.M.

Juran emphasized the participation of

Management in implementation of Quality

control and gave further impetus to the

development of quality control circles.

Japanese studied the lecturers recommendations

and put them into practice on a large scale with

an important modification of making even gross

root level employees responsible for Quality

instead of keeping it in the domain of Quality

Control specialists only by involving workers to

identify, analyze and solve their work related

problems using their talent and creativity.

With this intention, Dr Ishikawa, the father of

Quality Circle(QC), started the first Quality ControlCircle in Japan in 1962.At Toyota QC started in

1969 and had 760 circles by 1976 involving 4000

employees. Almost all of them were blue collar.

The company won Deming Prize in 1970.

Subsequently QC movement gained momentum

and become a part of work life in all the

organizations of Japan.

Around one crore employees took part in this QCmovement and the concept got extended to

service sectors like Hospitals, Banks, Schools etc.

At present around 40 countries of the world are

following this concept in different organizations.

QC- Definition & Objectives

Definition

A Quality Circle typically is a small group of

volunteers consisting of first-line employees who

meet regularly to identify, analyze and solveproblems in their area of work to continually

improve the quality, productivity and related

issues of their work, products and services.

These Small groups:-

Operate autonomously, Utilize quality control

Concepts and Techniques and other Improvement

tools, Tap members creativity and promote self

and mutual development.

The Size of the QC group should be 7(max.)

including facilitator (No. of executives in the QC

group should not exceed 2 including facilitator). It

can be more than two, for the departments

where executive strength is considerably more.

Objectives:-

To provide a forum for active participation

and involvement of employees in bringing

continuous improvement.

To recognize the efforts and positive

contribution of member involved in bringing

improvements in the quality of their work life. To encourage and motivate the employees to

participate in Teams towards achieving the

organizational excellence.

To develop employees capabilities to solve

the work related problems through collection

and analysis of data and make the work place

more pleasant.


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QCs in America

The interest of U.S. manufacturers in Quality

Circles was sparked by the dramatic

improvements in the quality and economic

competitiveness of Japanese goods in the post-

World War II years. In their volume JapaneseQuality Circles and Productivity, Ross and Ross

defined a quality circle as follows: "A quality circle

is a small group of employees doing similar or

related work who meet regularly to identify,

analyze, and solve product-quality and production

problems and to improve general operations. The

circle is a relatively autonomous unit (ideally

about ten workers), usually led by a supervisor or

a senior worker and organized as a work unit."

Active U.S. interest in Japanese quality control

began in the early 1970s, when U.S. aerospacemanufacturer Lockheed organized a tour of

Japanese industrial plants. This trip marked a

turning point in the previously established

pattern, in which Japanese managers had made

educational tours of industrial plants in the

United States. Lockheed's visit resulted in the

gradual establishment of quality circles in its

factories beginning in 1974. Within two years,

Lockheed estimated that its 15 quality circles had

saved nearly $3 million, with a ratio of savings to

cost of six to one.As Lockheed's successes became known, other

firms in the aerospace industry began adopting

quality circles, including Hughes Aircraft,

Northrop, Sperry Vickers, Martin Marietta, and

Westinghouse.

Thereafter quality

circles spread rapidly

throughout the U.S.

economy; by 1980,

over one-half of firms

in the Fortune 500 hadimplemented or were

planning on

implementing quality

circles. By the early

1980s, General Motors

Corp. had established

about 100 quality

circles among its Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac,

Chevrolet, and Fisher Body divisions.

QCs in India

For the first time in India, Dr.S.R. Udpa, the then

GM of M/s BHEL started QCs in M/s BHEL in 1980

in Hyderabad unit with a view to empower and

involve working level employees in solving their

work related problems.

Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI)

In order to propagate the QC concept to the rest

of the Country, Dr. S.R. Udpa founded a non-

profit body called Quality Circle Forum of India

(QCFI) in 1982 at Hyderabad. Subsequently

chapters were started in different regions to

spread and co-ordinate the QC activity in India.

QCs in Visakhapatnam Steel Plant

(VSP) of RINL

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant started QC movement

way back on 1990 immediately after

commissioning of First coke oven battery to

encourage employees' Participation for improving

work life.

Organisation Structure of QC Activities

in VSP

In VSP a well-defined structure allow employeesto participate in QC activities. This structure is no

way connected with the Company's organization

structure.

In VSP Quality Circles Structure is as follows:


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TM - Top Management consisting of GM and

above taking strategic decisions for QC movement

of the organization.

SC - Steering Committee consisting of HODs laying

broad policies for functioning, periodical progress

review and suitable recognition of QCs.

Facilitator Nominated by HOD and responsible

for development of skills of the members. He

should encourage the QC activities of his area

while serving as a resource person of the circles.

Leader selected by the members of the group

for a particular project. He leads the team with

following activities:

1. Clarification doubts of members

2. Conducting QC meetings regularly

3. Maintain records of circle activities and

4. Preparation of reports and presentations.

MemberEmployees belonging to the same work area

become members of the QC group.

Member should attend QC meetings regularly to

contribute to the success of the group through

individual experience, knowledge and QC problem

solving tools / techniques.

Non-MemberEmployees who extend necessary help to the QC

group shall become non-numbers. Non-membersare not part of the group. Non-members can be

co-opted by the QC group as per the requirement.

Coordinating Agency:

Co-ordinates QC movement

Conducts training programmes on QC

techniques

Assist in report generation and presentation

Organizes functions for recognition of QC

Project the QC movement in VSP

QC Presentation

Quality Circle Forum of India evolved norms for a

uniform evaluation of the QC case study

presentation. By following these norms the QC

team members can communicate well, explain

their case stage by stage effectively, which make

a desired impact on those witnessing the case

study, including the judges. The steps involved in

problem solving should include the following 12

(twelve) steps for proper understanding.

12 Steps for QC Problem Solving

1. Identification of work related problems

usually done through 2 or 3 rounds of brain

storming by Stratifying those problems into A,

B, C (Categories). A-within the scope of the

circle. B-Needing assistance from other areas.

C-Needing management's assistance.

2. Selection of Problem the problem will be

selected from "A" as it has greater chance of

being solved and implemented easily. But to

choose ONE from the many in category "A

The following method can be adopted.

a. Consensus method - all membersagreeing on one problem.

b. Weight method - giving weightage to

each problem, a scale of 1-5 can be

used. 1 for lowest and 5 for highest One

bagging highest score is chosen.

c. Ranking method - Rank the problems as

I,II,III,IV and so on. The problem getting

highest number of rank 1 would be

chosen.

3. Defining the problem should be well

focused and data based reasoning outrejection, deviation etc.

4. Analysis of the problem- through different

tools like Pareto, Flow diagram, Cause and

Effect Diagram etc.

5. Identification of causes through tallest

column of Pareto

6. Finding the root causes through 5 why and 1

how technique etc.

7. Data analysis by various Statistical tools

scoring highest mark for QC

8. Developing the solution through cross

fertilization of ideas generated by brain-

storming

9. Foreseeing probable resistance for

implementation and overcoming the same

10.Trial implementation and check performance

for validation

11.Regular implementation after validation


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12.Follow up / Review to arrive at tangible/

intangible benefits

Summary of various Elementary Statistical Tools

along with the purpose/ use in QC are as follows :

Recently introduced Seven Tools are:

a) Affinity diagram - to reduce the number of

ideas to a workable one by consensus.

b) Relation diagram - for finding appropriate

solution strategies using why, why technique.

c) Tree diagram - to develop a succession of

strategies for achieving an objective (target,

goal or result) systematically and logically.

d) Matrix diagram - enable the data based on

ideas to be employed effectively for

examining the relationships.

e) Priorities matrix - to find importance of the

task in scarce resource situation.

f) Arrow diagram for planning the order of

operation, their sequence, relationship and

criticality in time schedule.

g) Process decision program charts for

planning and designing the activities needed

to solve the problem when the information is

incomplete or the situation is fluid and hard

to forecast.

Quality Circle movement in Visakhapatnam Steel

Plant has spread its root deep down in production

areas. We may now peep into one case study of

QC in Steel Melt Shop, the core production unit of

VSP, to understand the QC activity in VSP and the

overall QC news of VSP to gather knowledge on

impact of QC in VSP, an integrated Steel Plant in

Public Sector.

Case Study

QC Name DISHA

ThemeDevelop People for

better tomorrow

Date of Formation 01-04-2009

Date of Completion 25-03-2010

Project NameHigher availability of

Steel Transfer Car

No. Of people involved in

the QC group 8 (Eight)Department Steel Melt Shop

AreaConverter Shop

Electrical

Introduction

About the Organization

Visakhapatnam Steel plant (VSP) is the first shore

based integrated steel plant in the country under

the corporate entity of Rashtriya Ispat NigamLimited (RINL) located at the east coast of Andhra

Pradesh in India. Steel Melt Shop, one of the vital

departments, convert hot metal into liquid steel

in Basic Oxygen Furnace (LD Converter) for casting

into blooms in Continuous Casting Machines.


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About the Department

Converter shop converts Hot metal received from

Blast Furnace to Liquid Steel by blowing oxygen

and adding additives like flux, ferro-alloy etc.

There are 3 nos.of 150 Ton LD Converters with

removable bottom for refractory lining, skirt forsuppressed combustion, bulk material and ferro-

alloy charging system, gas cleaning plant and steel

transfer car.

Salient features of LD converter:

Capacity = 150T

Effective volume= 133 M3

Sp. Volume = 0.886 M3/T

Height = 8.870 m

Diameter = 7.86 m

H/D Ratio (Shell)= 1.13 H/D Ratio (Lined) = 1.35

Tilt Speed = 0.1 to 1.0 m/min

About the Working Area

Steel Transfer Car (STC) is used to transport Liquid

Steel in Steel Ladles from Converter shop to

Continuous Casting Shop.. It is a self-propelled

car, driven by a motor. Every STC has 2 motors. At

a time only one motor is put into operation

keeping the other as stand-by. Supply to the

working motor is given through a changeoverswitch (COS) kept in the car. Electrical power is

supplied to car by a flexible trailing cable

arrangement using a cable reeling drum (CRD) of

Stemman Germany make. This cable is wound on

a car mast from where it is terminated at the COS.

This cable, trailing along the floor on rollers, are

vulnerable to damages from spilled hot metal

under the Converter and Argon rinsing area, Pay-

loaders, uprooted curve angles and dislodged

cable rollers.

Travel Length - 157 m

Car Data

Traveling Speed - 54 m /min

Acceleration Time - 6 s

Load carrying cap - 200 T

Center-to-Center distance bet. Rails -

3600 mm

Type of Rail - CR120

Wheel Diameter - 1000 mm

Wheel Type - Double Flanged

Wheel Load (Max.) - 64 T

Acceleration - 0.15 m/sec2

1. Identification of Problem

2.

causing production

delay was done through Brainstorming usingRound Robin method with the data captured

for different critical equipments of the area.

Total 28 problems were identified.

Selection of the problem

started by

prioritization through A B C analysis.

Result of the analysis

Category A : 9 problems

Category B : 16 problems

Category C : 3 problems

Data was collected year wise for category A

problems. They are as follows :

EquipmentDown

Time(Hrs)-2005

DownTime(Hrs)-

2006

DownTime(Hrs)-

2007

DownTime(Hrs)-

2008

SPTC 22.05 16.71 22.56 21.10

STC 16.08 24.98 36.66 46.38

Lance 3.31 7.75 14 8.25

Tilt 7.2 6.5 20.05 2.65

Slag Cutoff 2.1 0.66 0.66 0

Skirt 11.78 14.48 15.06 12.26

ID Fan 0.833 0 2.25 0

HMTC 0 0.83 9.75 0.33

Further by Pareto diagram of category A problems

identified STC as the major problematic area

among the Vital Few.


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3. Definition of the Problem

Production Loss due to STC Breakdown

With the selection of the problem, the Objective

and Goal was set.

ObjectiveTo reduce downtime of STC.

GOAL

To Reduce Breakdown Delays and Increase The

Availability of STC

Then Milestone Chart was prepared.

Flow Chart was prepared to have clear

understanding of the process.

4. Analysis of the problem

5. Identification of Causes

was done by Ishikawa/Fish-bone /Cause & Effect diagram to identify the

following major causes of Production Loss due to

STC breakdown

Damage of Flexible trailing cable

Motor Burning

Faulty Electrical Drive

Car Jamming

6. Root Cause Analysis was done by scatter

diagram with calculation of correlation values

between downtime of each element and the total

down time.

7. Data Analysis

of the above correlation values

helped in finding the percentage of influence of

each element on the total down time. The same

was tabulated as follows :

Element Causing Breakdown of STC Percentage of

influence on total down

Element CausingBreakdown of STC

Percentage of influence ontotal down time(%)

Cable Damage 92

Motor Failure 68

Electrical Drive Failure 41.7

Car Jamming 79

Thus it was obvious that the CRD cable fault had

direct influence on total downtime

8. Developing Solution

Alt 1 : Extending cable carrying channel. It failed

in Check stage as cable was getting

entangled.

: PDCA cycle was tried

with the following two alternatives :

Alt 2 : Increasing height of mast, diverter and

roller by 600mm, 500mm and 200mm

respectively. This got passed and accepted.

9. Foreseeing Probable Resistance:

1. Operational resistance for problem like mast

getting hit by ladle and cleaning of mast and

diverter at height was foreseen.

2. Resistance from maintenance group for extra

height was also foreseen.

The resistance was overcome through formal and

informal meetings with Operation and MechanicalMaintenance group by showing them the benefit

of higher production and productivity to be

achieved through this modification.

10. Trial Implementation:

was done in STC#2 on

15-06-2009 and found working alright.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

20 05- 06 2 006 -07 20 07- 08 2 008 -09 20 09- 10

HOURS

STC-2 Down time due to CRD cable

Improvement

is seen

11. Regular Implementation : was done inSTC#1 on 25-09-2009

STC#3 on 22-12-2009


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Original System

Metal Spillage during Tapping.

30% of the total cable burns occur during tapping

Mast Lifting Picture 1

Mast Lifting Picture 2

Diverting Unit Lifting (Drawing)


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Diverting Unit Lifting (Picture)

Improved (Modified) System


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12) Follow up and Review

Tangible Benefits

Financial Savings in 2009-10

By way of reduction in cable consumption

By way of reduction in Break-Down Time

Average Breakdown Time per Year (from 2005 to2008) = (16.08+24.98+36.66+4638) Hrs/4 =

31.025 Hrs

Breakdown Time in 2009-10 = 15.98 Hrs

Time saved in Breakdown = (31.025 15.98) Hrs =

15 Hrs(Approx.)

Production Loss in 1 Hr. = 1 Heat = 143 Ton of

Liquid Steel

Loss (Margin) per Ton = Rs. 5600/-

So, Production Loss saved in 2009-10 = Rs.

5600*143*15 = Rs 1.2 Crs

Thus Total Savings in 2009-10 = Rs. (1.2 + .215)

Crs = Rs 1.415 Crs.

Cost of Implementation

Modification job was completed by 2 skilled

and 2 unskilled workers in 2 days

Total Cost/STC = 2 x (2 skilled + 2 unskilled)

= 2 ({2 x 235} + {2 x 155})

= Rs. 1560/-

Cost for 3 STCs = 3 x 1560 = Rs. 4680/-

Cost of Materials / STC (Roller & Plate Cost) =

Rs.10000/-

Total Cost for QC Project = Rs.4680/- +

Rs.30000/- = Rs.34680/-

Thus Final Total Savings in 2009-10

= Rs. 14150000 Rs.34680

= Rs. 14115320 = Rs.1.412 Crs. (say)

Other Intangible Benefits

Improved Productivity

Higher Confidence Level High Morale

Employee Satisfaction


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Chance of QC failure

Japanese industry emphasizes on life-long

employment and seniority based career growth,

whereas west advocate for labour mobility and

skill. Japanese workers take pride incompany/place of work but western workforce is

more loyal to their profession/occupation. So

critics argue the success of application of QC in

US/ Western cultural settings. Matsushita Electric,

a leader of QC in Japan, does not have Quality

circle in its Chicago(US) plant as it does not

consider American culture/ worker suited for

Circle activities.

The other major causes of QC failure are as

follows :

1. Lack of training2. Lack of motivation

3. Lack of Top Management support

4. Lack of commitment

5. Lack of data

6. Lack of communication between various

levels of hierarchy etc.


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Remarkable success in VSP, an Indian

Public Sector Unit

The above case is a sample of successful QC in

VSP which gets reflected in the following table of

overall QC movement of VSP since inception:

Sl.

No.Year

No. of QC Projects Employee Involvement Estimated Savings

(In Rs. Lakh)Target Achieved No. Ref. Manpower %

1 1990-91 25 51 280 2 13

2 1991-92 50 83 700 5 59

3 1992-93 100 164 1200 8 190

4 1993-94 150 233 1600 10 295

5 1994-95 200 425 3300 17 335

6 1995-96 500 1281 5758 33 844

7 1996-97 1500 3152 7200 41 1008

8 1997-98 3000 3187 7800 44 2018

9 1998-99 3250 3250 8575 49 1200

10 1999-00 3322 3350 9450 54 900

11 2000-01 3370 3400 9900 59 850

12 2001-02 3400 3450 10500 62 900

13 2002-03 3450 3777 11200 68 950

14 2003-04 3500 3838 11500 16197 71 1100

15 2004-05 3555 3916 12201 16714 73 1400

16 2005-06 3600 4131 12311 16503 74.6 1725

17 2006-07 3700 4185 12377 16503 75 1855

18 2007-08 3750 4207 12235 16265 75.2 1900

19 2008-09 3800 4251 12817 17044 75.2 1920

20 2009-10 3850 4277 13287 17668 75.2 1995

This study may exude confidence in the management of Public Sector Units of

India that simple motivational QC technique can become a powerful tool to

enhance PRODUCTIVITY, which is key to the prosperity of Industry in particular,

and the whole Nation in general.

qc - a powerful productivity enhancement tool

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