Recent Toyota QC Circle Example
I recently ran across an example of a QC Circle presentation from Toyota Motor Corporation. Things have changed since I left the company! When I worked for Toyota QC Circle presentations were still being done either on flip charts or on overhead projectors. Today of course laptops have been a presence in the work site for quite some time and this technology has influenced how presentations are made. Things have apparently gotten a lot fancier?
QC Circles are a basic method in Toyota used for developing employees in the basics of problem solving and eliminating some problems in the employees realm of control. The steps for QC Circles follow the logic of Plan-Do-Check-Act just as A3 reports do as well. QC Circle reports however are usually not summarized onto a single page in order to allow the members to present more detail. Typically the QC Circle reports include but are not limited to:
- Title
- Member Introduction
- Background and Context
- Reasons for Selection
- Current Situation
- Goal for the Project
- Analysis of the Problem
- Countermeasures
- Plan for Implementation
- Results and Confirmation of Effect
- Remaining Steps and Standardization
- Reflection Points
Here is an example of an award winning presentation at a plant wide competition from a couple of years ago. It contains 24 presentation slides which I thought was somewhat excessive. However I must admit the level of detail and accomplishment was very impressive. The content is in Japanese so it probably won’t help many people. I’ll translate the headings which will appear below each image. For more detail click on each picture and you should see a few more words of description if interested. There is not enough room to fully translate the images but this summary should help you get the high level picture at least.
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- 1) Circle Introduction
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- 2) Title of the QC Circle Project
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- 3) Background Reason for Selection – 1
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- 4) Background Reason for Selection – 2
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- 5) Background for Selection – 3
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- 6) Background Reason for Selection – 4
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- 7) Outline of Coolant Tank System
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- 8) Current Situation – 1
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- 9) Current Situation – 2
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- 10) Current Situation – 3
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- 11) Goal Setting
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- 12) Root Cause Analysis
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- 13) Cause Factor 1
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- 14) Countermeasure 1
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- 15) Cause Factor 2
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- 16) Cause Factor 2 Continued
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- 17) Countermeasure 2
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- 18) Countermeasure 2 Continued
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- 19) Countermeasure 2 Continued
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- 20) Effect Confirmation
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- 21) Effect Confirmation Continued
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- 22) Standardization
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- 23) Reflection Points and Next Steps
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- 24) Team Comment
In short the team achieved their goal of reducing the amount of concentration variation in the coolant tanks. This in turn reduced defects in machining and eliminated tool breakage problems on the machines as well. In addition the team increased their own knowledge about the importance of coolant in the machining of the component. Lastly they improved their morale and confidence to do other such improvements in their work area. The results of this effort were also communicated to other areas in the company to capture the gains.
Toyota has been engaged in QC Circles since the early 1960’s as part of their TQC program. This group of production team members in the activity outlined above probably had experience levels of anywhere from one to ten years in the company. After 50 years of similar ongoing improvements Toyota is at such a stage that 0.05% defect levels in machining are deemed “problematic” and worth of efforts such as this one.
Many thanks. You have confirmed what I thought had transpired. Planning a 2nd edition to provide some modern application? We’re off and running on our methods and enjoying every step. Functioning as the “facilitator” has many chalenges since I have to facilitate the Sr. Managers just as much as the line Supervisors/employees. Thanks again.
Dear Sir, may I know when is the above circle project being presented, as you only mention ‘a couple of years ago’. Thanks.
There is no date on the presentation. When I was given it a couple of years ago I was told it was a year or two old. Probably dates to around 2007 ish but I don’t know for certain.
i am interested in knowing about the present status of QC Circle activities in Japanese establishment -such as number of active circle industrywise and benefits reaped in previous years
Your best bet is to contact the JUSE in Japan. They have several conferences per year that pertain to QC circles and related activities.
Upcoming conferences in Japan
Dear Sir, can i get a sample copy of the circle project!
Actually we are no longer in possession of the original document. Each paged was copied and scanned in as a jpeg file. If you double click on the image it should appear as a reasonably sized item. Left click on the image and you should be able to download a file for each page. That is the only option I can suggest at this point.