MESA
Mechanical Engineering Students' Association
Background: Have you seen a bunch of college bumpkins in canteen pondering over various issues? They are keen to advice Sachin Tendulkar and Barack Obama what to do and what not to do. They complain on economic downfall of world, love-affairs of celebrities, global warming, death of Michael Jackson and what not. But in these trivial matters, sometimes problems in college are discussed. Some instinctive solutions come up. They say we will never get rid of this bad condition: students will not learn “engineering” but will just be happy to route in exam, labs will continue to be inefficient, and infrastructure would be as bad as ever can be. They suggest a lot of solutions which are not likely to be implemented or put into action if management doesn’t address them. They get discouraged when they are ignored. A good thought or solution goes in vain if it’s not at least tried. An idea came up, will a quality circle help. Then those thoughts, those solutions can be manifested in the reality. Quality circle: It is a volunteer group composed of workers (or even students), usually under the leadership of their supervisor (but they can elect a team leader), who are trained to identify, analyse and solve work-related problems and present their solutions to management in order to improve the performance of the organization, and motivate and enrich the work of employees. Quality circles have been working in Industry for years now. Continuous improvement is not a fad but a necessary part of management’s obligation to properly run its company. Gone are the boom days when quality did not matter due to the volume of work available and the ease of obtaining work. Be it using current technology effectively or be it improving the worker management relationship, quality circle provides sufficient platform for that. Workers have become more productive to companies as they now can solve their problems without much help of management. They are confident to see through any problem. Thus quality circle forms a platform for students to voice their problems and solution to management or to solve some of the problems themselves. We were apprehending whether it will work in our college or not but then Prof.(Dr.) Khond encouraged us to embrace this novel concept and Quality Cirlcle was formed on 14th July 2009. As Maharshi Kanad formed a most valuable place in our minds, we named it Kanad Quality Circle. Activity: We identified some problems from our institute and hostel through brainstorming. We came up with around 50 problems. Some of them were: Leakage and pigeon problem in Mechanical Main Drawing Hall, improper condition of lab equipments. We categorized the problems so that problems which require immediate attention are tackled first. We used some of the advanced techniques like pareto charts, multivoting to identify most pinning problem. We realized that bad condition of equipment in laboratories is an issue which requires immediate attention. The root cause of this issue had to be confronted first if we were to solve it permanently. Again scientific tools such as affinity diagram, Ishikawa diagram were used to identify it. Solutions of this problem were identified and were gauged on their suitability, economic viability, and time consideration. As a part of trial, we selected Theory of Machines lab for improvement and found a sufficient level of improvement. We had achieved this in period of a month. We have learned a new way of looking at any problem. This way is far more analytical and realistic. We see ourselves as altogether new personalities. Achievements: On 20th August 2009, we presented our case study in Chapter Convention of Quality Circle in Aurangabad. The judges welcomed the effort and honored us with Best of Debut, Herr Helmut Donner Trophy. With that we have qualified for presenting our case study at National Convention of Quality Circle in Bangalore. Nearly twenty quality circles presented their case studies. Quality circles of Bajaj Auto Ltd., Johnson & Johnson also presented their cases. The judges praised Kanad Quality Circle for doing the work even when Pune was torn with Swine flu epidemic. Future Plans: The process of improvement is never ending as we reach excellence. We now plan to extend this lead to institute level and make sure this process is all-inclusive. We are working with MESA and various clubs of Gymkhana to get valuable advice and contribution. This is a bold start and we endeavor to make institute more efficient, happy place for study. Kanad Quality Circle Team:
