Title: Knowledge Managed Quality Circle programme

Authors: V. Mohan Sivakumar, S.R. Devadasan, R. Murugesh, M. Arun Ruban Kumar

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore-641 004, Tamilnadu, India. ' Department of Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore-641 004, Tamilnadu, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hindusthan College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore Tamilnadu, India. ' SE FORGE Limited, 6th Floor, Viscose Towers, Avinashi Road, Coimbatore-641 018, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract: |Quality Circle| (QC) is an employee involvement technique that was once widely applied in organisations to achieve continuous quality improvement. However, QCs began to vanish soon after the world experienced knowledge and Information Technology (IT) explosions. This paper reports research work carried out to overcome this situation by developing a model named Knowledge Managed Quality Circle (KMQC). This model envisages the development of knowledge portals and a specific type of organisation to facilitate the integration of QC and Knowledge Management (KM). KMQC|s practicality was studied by applying it in a compressor manufacturing company.

Keywords: KM; knowledge management; quality circles; knowledge portals; web programming; TQM; total quality management; employee involvement; compressor manufacturing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPMB.2008.021792

International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking, 2008 Vol.2 No.4, pp.338 - 363

Published online: 04 Dec 2008 *

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