Title: Application study of innovative Quality Circle Programme and its Decision Support System in a gear manufacturing company

Authors: S. Maheshkumar, S. Vinodh, S.R. Devadasan, S. Thirugnanam, M. Arumugam, K. Balakrishnan

Addresses: Heavy Engineering Division, Larsen and Toubro Limited, Powai, Mumbai 400072, India. ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli 620 015, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641 004, Tamil Nadu, India. ' SRM Valliamai Engineering College, S.R.M. Nagar, Kattankulathur 603 203, Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Wipro Technologies, Bangalore 560100, India. ' Tata Consultancy Services, Bangalore 560066, India

Abstract: During the 1980s, the world witnessed the application of Quality Circles (QCs) for problem solving. Due to stiff competition, the world community began to expect innovation in addition to problem solving. As a result, QCs began to diminish in the world. In order to overcome this deficiency, this paper describes a technique called Innovative QC encompassed with innovation and QC concepts. As key decisions are required to be made for successful implementation of innovative QC, its Decision Support System (DSS) was adopted for investigation. The practicality of innovative QC and its DSS were examined in a gear manufacturing environment.

Keywords: QC; quality circles; innovation management; idea generation; problem solving; DSS; decision support systems; employee involvement; process management; benchmarking; gear manufacturing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPMB.2009.026407

International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking, 2009 Vol.3 No.1, pp.24 - 46

Published online: 10 Jun 2009 *

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