Dear List,
Our team discussion has recently begun to focus on the difference
between 'teams' in business and 'teams' in the classroom. I
thought that I would share some information regarding our teams in
manufacturing and perhaps we could compare and see where the
differences really are, if there really are.
SOME BACKGROUND:
We are a manufacturing facility with 250 employee's. We have 7
people on Staff (Senior Management) from the following
departments: Accounting, Manufacturing, Materials/Scheduling,
Human Resources, Engineering, Operations, Continuous Improvement,
Quality.
We basically have three team types
1. Leadership
2. Steering
3. Empowerment
All employees are on at least one team.
We define TEAMS for each group as:
Cross-functional - all process users
Uses Data
Uses Standardization and Improvement Processes
Team Focus is in three areas:
Process and Results
Content
Relationships
Each Team is Evaluated using 10 Criteria:
1. Clear purpose for meeting (agreed upon goal)
2. Participation - shared not dominated
3. Decision Making - Consesus not vote
4. Openness - honest not fearful
5. Listening - Attentive, not ignored
6. Problems - Blamed on processes / not people
7. Conflict - WIN/WIN not Me First
8. Information - Based on data not assumption
9. Agenda - Progress, Completion, Action Items, Responsibility,
shared work load
10. Achievement - Valuable meeting / not waste of time
Evaluations are self/anonomous - shared with the group
Evaluations take place at the conclusion of each meeting
The Senior Staff is on the Leadership Team.
Responsibilities:
1. Create Direction for the Facility (includes Vision, Mission,
etc)
2. Determine Policy / Enforce
3. Monitor Data to determine progress toward Vision (diagnostics)
The Steering Committee is made up of Senior Staff (horizontal) and
a person from each aspect of the business (vertical). The Steering
Commitee is a microcosm of the whole organization.
Responsibilities:
1. Coordinate all Empowerment Teams
2. Keep Teams focused
3. Monitor movement toward the Vision
4. Monitor communication affectiveness
5. Determine Awards
6. Integrate support systems
7. Remove roadblocks and barriers
The Empowerment Teams are made up of all the people (all shifts)
using a particular manufacturing process....operators, utilities,
a maintenance rep, a tooling rep, a quality rep, a scheduler, a
Customer service rep., process engineer, supervisor.
Each Empowerment team is a small plant within the plant - with
their own resources, budget, product and customer.
Roles on the team are:
Sponsor: Sr Staff Member - to remove roadblocks
Coach: Supervisor - to lead meeting toward actions/outcomes
Facilitator: monitors relationships to be certain people are
heard, conflict is dealt with and consensus is reached.
Team members: Design standards into the processes, make constant
improvement based on results.
Responsibilities:
Design processes and systems to support quality, cost and delivery
to the customer.
Scope:
The vision
The basic work of all teams is three fold:
Understand and support the Vision [the Vision values quality,
cost, delivery and relationships]
Honestly evaluate the current situation
Fill the gaps using data, decisions, actions and monitoring
(measurables)
Wonder if this helps or stimulates more discussion.
Thanks,
Rick Corcoran
corcoranre@excelinc.com