In the beginning there were only a small number of persons available who were well versed on the subject Quality Circle. QCFI’ had to rely upon the available reading materials.
So QCFI’s first book ‘QC at a glance’ was a reproduction of what was published by International Association of Quality Circle (IAQC) in USA. This was published in eleven languages viz. English, Hindi, Gurmuki, Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Gujarati,Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam.
It also published another small book called ‘Trainer’s Manual’. Even this was a reproduction of what was published by BHEL, Ramachandrapuram.
It also later on prepared a set of slides for initial introduction that were sold to all.
It also brought out a set of four posters for propagation of the concept.
A book titled ‘Quality Circle in India’ was brought out by the ED in the year 1986 with the materials available in QCFI but as his personal book.
In 1989 Corporate Communication brought a video presentation about Quality Circle with the help of QCFI, but Corporate Communication was selling it themselves paying a royalty based on the sales to ED.
In September 1992 when I took charge as ED, looking into the situation decided to bring out much needed publications on behalf of QCFI. In this task I got the active help and cooperation from Prof. V. Narayana and Mr. B. Subramanian. They agreed to carry out this task along with me taking a nominal payment of 3% in total as royalty for all three of us so that the rights for the publication can remain with QCFI.
Details given below are not in the order of dates of release of the books and other audio video materials. They are combined topic wise.
I felt that priority area is minimum material on ‘Elementary Statistical System’ or Seven Tools. Dr. Ishikawa considered graphs and Control Chart as one tool and here we decided to separate them as two tools and to that added Brain Storming and Flow Diagram and called them ‘Problem Solving Techniques’.
Initially I brought out a set of 180 transparencies that were prepared by me long back as QCFI publication. The response was good and so ten small booklets were made and they were sold to all the members.
A set of twelve posters was brought out on these techniques including one on ‘Milestone Chart’. This particular poster Milestone Chart was modeled on what was published by Singapore Productivity Board. Now these posters are increased to 25 in numbers.
Next step was bringing ten small booklets on these ten techniques. It was a great success and twice they were reprinted.
In the meantime there was a demand for a book on Quality Circle Concept from QCFI taking into account the method to be followed for institutionalizing the concept in the organization. First 200 copies were made with the title Quality Circle Concept. A few copies were sent to important persons asking for their critical analysis. Many gave their views and most noteworthy one is a page-by-page analysis given by Mr. Ramamurthy from Calcutta.
Based on all these a revised edition with the title ‘Quality Circle Concept and Implementation’ was made and a copy was given compliment to all the participants in NCQC ’94 held at Nagpur. So far six reprints including with three revisions were made and published.
QC at a glance was also revised and published in English, Hindi and Tamil with the request to chapters to bring out their own publication in the local language. Many chapters have done that.
When the ten booklets on PST were brought out four booklets explaining Role of Managers, Role of Facilitators, Role of Leaders and Role of Members for successful functioning of Quality Circles in an organization were also prepared ad published.
At a later date Mr. S. K. Kapai of NTPC wanted me to prepare a book of approximately 100 pages containing all important information about Quality Circles for distribution to all Quality Circle members of NTPC units participating in their first inter unit convention. Mr. S.K. Kapahi was clever and made me to give the copies as compliment to the organization. Since NTPC was our most important customer I had to agree to that request. But to our luck this book turned out to be a most popular one and more than ten editions were brought so far giving lot of savings to QCFI.
Once again the attention was to Problem Solving Techniques. Taking into need for internal training ten audio videotapes were made. It was a major work and lot of time and efforts were put on that.
Then these tapes were converted into a twelve modules CD ROM. It was a Power Point presentation with more than 1800 slides. It was made in English and Hindi. This was well received.
When these changes were going on the ten booklets were found to be inadequate and based the Power Point presentation a revised book on Problem Solving Technique was brought out.
In the meantime New Seven Tools were becoming popular and I felt that Mr. Mizuno’s book on that is a bit complicated. I wanted to publish one in a lucid way. I happened to see a book published by Mr. Brassard in USA and keeping that as a model a book on New Seven Tools was prepared. I also felt like Mr. Brassard that Matrix Data Analysis is too cumbersome and cannot used without the help of a computer. Computers were not developed like now, so only gave a brief idea about it in the book. I added various methods of Prioritization Matrices as a part of it. Now much software is available for effective use of these techniques and our next edition will contain more details about Matrix Data Analysis.
In line with Problem Solving Techniques for New Seven Tools also an elaborate Power Point presentation in CD ROM was prepared for internal training purpose.
Similarly using revised QC at a glance as a basis a CD ROM was made for internal training purpose.
In 1990s many organizations were attracted to Five S and it was becoming popular and many were implementing it in their organization. Mr. Ramapati Singhania with a help of an artist got a set of cartoons made for educating people in his organization. He and Dr. K. V. Narrasimmam were kind enough to give them to QCFI. Using them a set of slides was made with an audiotape in Hindi and English. They were well received.
A booklet on Five S was brought out and based on that a CD ROM was made with audio in Hindi and English.
Later on QCFI HQ took up Five S implementation in a serious way and for that purpose a set of posters, seven big and four small were made. We also made five acrylic paperweights, packet card for regular reference, A4 size paper pamphlet were made.
In 1990s as mentioned organizations interest were not only towards Five S but also towards Kaizen and above all everyone was talking about Total Quality Management. We also agreed with them because Dr. K. Ishikaawa originator of Quality Control Circle concept made it abundantly clear Quality Control Circle is part of Company Wide Quality Control (TQC). In 1985 in ICQCC 85 held at Tokyo he made a presentation in the Pre Convention Seminar on Company Wide Quality Control and I (KG) too made a presentation in NCQC 87 the first national convention held in New Delhi presented a paper along with Mr. R. Rajasekharan ‘Quality Circle is part of Company Wide Quality Control’.
In view of sudden interest towards TQM organizations were losing interest towards Quality Circle. Many of TQM faculties were encouraging this. We differed with them and were telling that at top and middle management level QITs (Quality Improvement Teams) are to be made at grass root level Quality Circle is a must.
I strongly felt if we have to make them to hear us we should also talk about other Quality Concepts and make organizations to realize that we are knowledgeable about all prevalent Quality Concepts and based on that knowledge advocating the importance of Quality Circles.
In 1993 Dr. E. W. Deming passed away and in 1994 Dr. J.M. Juran became 90 years old and decided to stop conducting programmes on Quality concepts and was going around giving a lecture titled ‘Last Word’. I got a copy of his lecture material and combining it with what is written by Mr. Atkins book titled “ “ prepared a programme and conducted a six days workshop repeatedly to establish our credibility. This workshop handout became very popular and we published it as a book for use.
In 1990s many Quality Concept advocators emerged in each one talking about different concept and calling it as the ultimate and way to succeed. Most important ones are JIT(Just In Time)/Kanban was talk of the country which was followed by BPR (Business Process Reengineering) and then by ISO 9000. This was creating a big confusion among all organizations. At QCFI we knew that all of them are important developments in the Quality field and each concept has got its own merit. We also knew that none of them is replacement another one and Quality Circle has its own place amongst all these concepts.
Fortunately we could foresee this situation at the beginning itself. I knew anyone who reads the books on these concepts would easily understand that. I also knew that reading books is not the habit all the persons. Then how do we make the organizations to understand this point became a question before us? We discussed this point and I proposed that we bring out small booklets on all the emerging and existing Quality Concepts with salient features of each concept explained without any prejudice. Since they will be small chances are good for many to read. It will not only make them to understand about the importance and use of these concepts but also will make them to have faith in QCFI and also on the Quality Circle concept.
So we started bringing out a series of booklets on various Quality Concepts and made it a point to explain about them briefly in our programmes for better understanding.
In this period IT (Information Technology not Income Tax) started to have a great impact on the entire world. Every day development in that area is rewriting the history. We understood it would have major impact on quality concepts too. So we decided to bring out booklets covering some of the important basic IT concepts. Following are the books we brought so far. |
