Case 1, Chap 3: Setting Up Teams at James Corporation
Part of the James Corporation builds prestressed concrete sections for use in large commercial buildings and trucks them to the construction site for installation. Randy Thompson has been supervisor of one crew for four years. Building prestressed concrete sections is precise work, and each section has to be customized for the structure it will be part of. Everything has to go right or the concrete section can crack or break and end up as scrap. Building them right requires the careful cooperation of every member in the work group.
A year and a half ago, Ed Walters, on the top managers of the James Corporation began learnig about the value of a team approach to facilitate more cooperation on the job. He went to some management seminars where he found out that teams are not a panacea, but when properly implemented, can result in people learning how to work better together and better manage the processes they're responsible for. Ed decided the team approach might work at James to help employees on the floor improve their processes and reduce waste.
Ed got the OK of the other top managers to try teams and brought in a consulting company to help them proceed. The consultant learned that supervisors like Randy were responsible for making sure the building process operated properly and that his work group looked him to make decisions and solve problems. Part of the reason for the waste was that Randy and other supervisors weren't always available when problems arose. The consultant's goal was to help the employees and supervisors learn how to work together better, share ideas, and learn how to better manage their processes.
Ed Walters really believed this change was the smart thing for the company and bought into it. His enthusiasm as well as the training supplied by the consultant helped transform what were work groups into functional teams. The employees had better access to information and were empowered to begin solving problems as they came up without necessarily depending on their supervisor, who now had the title of team leader, to do it for them.
The transition to teams took over a year at James Corporation. The payoff has come from team members, whose work was already interdependent, learning how to work together better, cooperate to figure out how to prevent problems, and continued process improvement. Not only have the employees become more productive, but they seem to be more enthusiastic about their jobs.
- What about the work at the James Corporation made a move to teams a sound decision?
- What had to be in place for this move to teams to succeed and why was this important?
- Why do you think the employees were more enthusiastic about their jobs after the move to teams?
Suggested answers for these questions are included in the Instructor's Manual.
