A steering committee is one per organisation, which is staffed senior managers that make a general policy and set up the framework and resources for the co-operate within the business.
The facilitator is there to support the process in each of the circle as well as to provide an operational framework and guidance if required.
The circle leaders will often be the unit supervisors and they will stimulate discussions within their circle without dominating it. Leaders need to be familiar with problem solving technique and group dynamics.
The members of the circle: The circle meet during company time perhaps for one hour a week. Problem solving techniques employed will include brainstorming graphs showing the frequency of problems, randomised sampling of product units produced and cause and affect diagrams.
If a quality circle needs to be affective Marks and Spencer’s needs to be well educated and trained workforce which is capable of receiving, analysing and solve problems. All the techniques designed to improve quality standards and it depends on the workers who work with each other.
A business like Marks and Spencer’s is effective in training and developing its workforce and that is to apply to be an investor in people (IIP) this is a government initiative that recognises business that trains and develops their workforce and that is what marks and Spencer’s has done to build a workforce.
The advantages of quality circles is that everyone is involved in a problem they will encourage their workers to stay motivated. They can keep on working because if they don’t then the business could fall in to trouble but the good thing is that they stay motivated in Marks and Spencer’s and that is good because if they keep on motivated they can bring a lot of profit. They are determined to work so it helps the workers to take pride in their work and if they do that it will also motivate other workers to take pride in their work and that will be a big advantage to the company.
They can be successful if the workers accept responsibilities wherever they work because if they do that will help them get a lot work done because they have a responsibility and they know they have to get that work done. Also if they keep good quality and try to improve their quality all the time and that will attract new customers they know a new set of quality is going to be released and if it is successful they will help the company make profit and that is a another advantage to the company.
The disadvantages of quality circles: Quality circles require a well trained workforce and if they don’t have that they will fail in the business because if the workers can not do the work they will not bring any profit in to the business. If the workforce is not good the customers will also dislike the workers because they might not like their customer service and that will let the company down. Quality circles can fail if
Managers hand the responsibility for quality to the quality circle.
It is assumed that quality circles are able to solve all problems and if they can the company might come on to a good run.
If managers ignore what the quality circle says then the company can go down because they are not following what they are supposed to do. If they don’t follow what the quality circle recommends then the company might became a failure and they don’t want that.
If the product is not of good quality that will also let the company down because Marks and Spencer’s are known for top quality clothing and if they sell a bad patch of clothing with poor quality that can also lead to less customer and less profit.
This system helps to make profit for the company it follows the system that is telling them, which is quality circle and it is bringing in profit for Marks and Spencer’s. They are selling good quality clothing for the company and this is leading more and more customers to shop at Marks and Spencer’s because some times they do a sale and they get the products cheap. The workers are very good and their customer service is also very good so it is pleasing the customers and they are happy to shop at Marks and Spencer’s again. They can still improve in a few areas like selling there products and attracting customers all time and also to keep the employees trained so if they come across any task they should be able to handle it and if they do that it will help the company a lot and also in many ways.
I think they have met all the system because I think they are making profit and they are selling their clothing and also they are attracting new customers all the time. Also I think that they have a skilled workforce to handle the work on any difficulty so they shouldn’t have any problem. They have a very good customer service so I think they are following the system that is set for them and they are following it and they should be successful in the future. They have their products priced at a reasonable price so they are attracting customers and that is good for the company and for the customers who are also happy.
