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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.