Training on Quality Control Circle (QCC) for Students at Universities and Colleges
Post date: Monday, Sep 9, 2024 | 9:56 - View count: 612
During the training, Ms. Trần Thị Kim Dung – Member of the STAMEQ’s Youth Union and the program’s speaker, stated that the Quality Control Circle (QCC) is known as an important tool for quality improvement. QCC activities have highlighted the critical role and boundless potential of humans in production; promoting the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) methods in companies and enterprises to continuously improve quality, reduce costs, and increase production and business efficiency.
QCC was first applied in Japan in the 1960s through the Japanese effort to improve productivity, quality, and create a people-centered corporate culture. It began to be adopted by other countries starting in 1978, with successful implementations in nations such as India, South Korea, and China. In Vietnam, the issue of quality has only been significantly emphasized in recent years.
To illustrate why we should adopt QCC activities, Ms. Dung provided a real-life example: The Vietnam Register announced a recall of Honda Civic vehicles manufactured in 2022 due to the discovery that the welds on the driver’s seat frame may peel off during a collision, potentially compromising driver safety.
Clearly, this example shows the damage that the company must address to ensure customer safety when purchasing vehicles: compensation, redesigning, re-manufacturing, inspecting, and discarding. But the consequences don’t stop there; they will have long-term impacts such as increased work, higher time costs, loss of customer opportunities, and a decline in brand reputation. The training was conducted in both in-person and online formats.
This is related to the iceberg principle, where what we see is only a small part of the problem, and there are many other aspects we need to investigate, identify, and solve to achieve the best results.
From this example, it’s clear that addressing problems earlier reduces costs significantly. The 1:10:100 rule shows that a mistake identified at the early stages incurs a cost of 1 unit, while at the final stage it is 10 units, and after-sales, 100 units.
Instead of waiting for issues to arise, establishing a proactive group to identify and solve problems can save a lot of costs, which is why we need a quality QCC group.
According to Ms. Dung, the characteristics of a QCC group include:
- Small group: Under 10 people, each with a different role. The group will have a leader whose role is to define tasks, facilitate group activities, train members, and understand the opinions and desires of management in the workplace.
- Members’ roles: Coordinate to help the leader achieve goals, perform assigned tasks on schedule, and proactively propose improvements.
- Continuous control and improvement: Constantly look for issues and solutions, going through each production step to identify problems.
- Self-determining tasks and methods: The group decides what needs to be done, how to do it, and confirms its effectiveness.
- Skilled use of problem-solving tools based on the PDCA cycle:
- Plan: Forming the QCC group, identifying and analyzing the problem, and creating an action plan.
- Do: Address the problem.
- Check: Evaluate the results.
- Act: Implement improvements for better outcomes.
Regarding QCC objectives, Ms. Dung explained that QCC helps improve productivity, quality, and costs; establishes proactive control; fosters supportive relationships; and increases income and shared benefits between employees and businesses.
“The success of one Kaizen is the start of another. Therefore, the quality improvement group’s activities are ongoing, always proactively seeking problems and proposing solutions to achieve new goals. This is why QCC requires strong will and determination from business leaders. Leadership attention and encouragement are the most important factors leading to QCC success,” Ms. Dung emphasized.
When applied to students, Ms. Dung believes that learning about QCC can enhance work productivity, foster mutual support among members, stimulate creative thinking, and build relationships.
Additionally, developing a proactive problem-solving mindset is crucial: how we actively seek out problems to resolve and improve work efficiency. This is extremely important, and having a proactive mindset can greatly benefit one’s career opportunities. After leaving school, if in a job you only wait passively for instructions and follow a basic job description, your career prospects will narrow. When encountering a problem, solving it through the PDCA cycle is something students can fully apply to improve their learning efficiency.
