Reply #10: Word must have traveled, because in '87, the factory I worked at [View All]

[Sal Minella]

made a big deal of establishing "Quality Circles."

Predictably, they managed to miss Demming's point utterly, and instead of including some upper-management types along with us greasy-handed peons actually working on the floor, the factory culture prevailed and nobody was willing to attend a sit-down meeting with anybody of lesser rank than his own (women did the work; men had the titles and the big paychecks).

So.

One of the "Quality Circles" consisted of no one but Executive Secretaries in the plant. Nobody else in that circle. Just Executive Secretaries from all departments.

And I'm sure my supervisor sat in a circle with other supervisors who were all equally totally clueless about how their departments actually worked and/or what could be done to make them work better.

No increased production resulted (I heard that the groups seemed to consider these gatherings as Social Circles more than anything), so the top management abandoned Demming's idea because unfortunately, it just didn't work in their factory. . . :)