Quality Circles and Feedback Loops Can be Used to Strengthen Quality Management

There are three ways that Quality Circle and Feedback Loops can be used to strengthen quality management. The first ways is to use Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA). This particularly works in closing the loops on circles and strengthening quality management. This is the process that starts in asking employees to note how the process is flowing currently, gathering data on the present process, discussing and implementation of the suggestions, identifying areas that need development, documenting weaknesses in process, and checking how the new process is working (Taylor, 2013, para.4). In the study performed by Taylor it was critical to study PCDA cycle and take time to replicate about developments that were already made. He suggested that it could take few months to collect accurate data because the measures that they were looking are daily, weekly and monthly because they wanted to be sure that the results are at the new standard. This kind of reassurance is great way for organization to see the bottom line as it relates to saving and cutting cost. Employees involved in process need to know how to deal with issues and become part of the resolution of the issues.

The second way to strength quality management is to use standard work. Standard work is the process of following employees and recording their starting and ending time when they do the task.  The reason of standard work is to make one way of doing a process. With one way of doing a process, we will be sure that all the steps are completed and it will ensure that safety and quality is applied. For example, checking in patient takes 15 minutes, therefore in one hour doctor can see four patients. Then, this process is taken to next level ensuring that enough staff is working based on the appointment schedule.

The last way to strength quality management is problem solving. Problem solving process begins with identifying the problem. Then, once the problem is identified, search for the root cause is performed using the 5 why’s to come to the conclusion why the problem occurred in the first place. “The 5 Why’s is a technique used in the Analyze phase of the Six Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology. It is a great Six Sigma tool that does not involve data segmentation, hypothesis testing, regression or other advanced statistical tools, and in many cases can be completed without a data collection plan” (Six Sigma, 2015, para.1).