Case Study: improving work team effectiveness

Introduction

Purpose and scope of the project

The purpose of the consultation project described in this case study was to assess the Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) program of a Michigan based company engaged in the manufacture of automotive components. The company is an established tier-1 automotive supplier with annual revenues of approximately  $50 million, and approximately 150 full-time employees. The scope of the consulting project included the development, implementation, and evaluation of an intervention plan designed to improve the effectiveness of the cross-functional team responsible for administering the Advanced Product Quality Planning program.

Diagnostic techniques utilized

Following personal observations, surveys of team members, and interviews with team leaders, the ineffectiveness of the team was attributed to team members lacking accountability to the team, and a generalized apathy towards existing policies and procedures. The leadership of the team and the roles of certain individual members were also seen as factors contributing to the lack of team effectiveness. These factors culminated in poor task assignment practices, a poor rate of task completion by team members, and the general ineffectiveness of the APQP team in achieving the core team objective of the identification and avoidance of problems prior to the launch of new products or processes.

Research findings

The research revealed that the problems being experienced by the APQP team at the company were very common to work teams in general. The research also revealed that team management, team leadership, and team development were key elements in determining the success of work teams. These themes formed the basis for the intervention.

Intervention

Intervention objectives

The intervention was designed to address the key issues of team management, team leadership, and team development. The primary objective of the intervention was to enable company personnel to recognize these issues, understand their impact, and take the steps needed to correct these problem areas. A secondary objective was to assist and encourage the managers and supervisors to improve their team management, team leadership, and team development skills as a method of not only furthering their own development, but also strengthening the organization through that development.

Implementation 

The intervention consisted of a series of in-house seminars combined with implementation guidance in the form of group and individual coaching. The topic of the first seminar was team management. This seminar was intended to instruct the attendees on structuring meetings, setting and following agendas, making effective task assignments, and facilitating team interaction and decision making. Team leadership was the topic of the next three seminars. The topics addressed included the rationale behind the use of work teams, reasons why many work teams fail, developmental stages of work teams, leader role and responsibilities regarding team development, leadership skills and management skills, common problems encountered by team leaders, and the benefits of effective work teams. Team development was the subject of the final seminar. The topics covered included the developmental stages of work teams, member roles and responsibilities regarding team development, the development of followership skills, and benefits of effective work teams.

Results of the intervention

The objectives of the intervention were selected because they represent the primary functions of the APQP team within the organization; a) adherence to established company policies and procedures relating to the APQP process, and b) being effective in reducing the number and / or severity of problems experienced during the launch of new products and processes.

Objective #1

The goal of objective #1 was to reduce the number and severity of internal audit violations attributable to the APQP team by 10%. The actual results indicated an improvement in the frequency of internal audit violations of 71.9%, and an improvement of 82.1% in the severity of the violations found. These results are based on comparisons of pre-intervention and post-intervention internal audit results conducted by Quality Assurance personnel as part of the compliance requirements for the ISO-9002 and QS-9000 systems in place at the company.

Objective #2

The goal of objective #2 was to reduce the number and severity of problems experienced during the launch of new products or manufacturing processes managed by the APQP team by 10%. The actual results indicate an improvement of 63.8% in the frequency of problems experienced during launches, and a 31.8% improvement in the average severity of the problems experienced.  These results are based on the comparison of pre-intervention and post-intervention launches of new products and processes. The comparison was performed by a team of technical personnel directly involved in each of the launches evaluated.

Summary

Both objectives were achieved with results that exceeded expectations. The improvements shown in this project suggest that team effectiveness can be greatly enhanced when the fundamental principles for the structure, team deployment, management, and leadership of work teams are followed. The intervention focused on three primary areas; team management, team leadership, and team development. While the subject of this project was the APQP team at the company, the elements of the intervention are applicable to most work teams at most companies.  

The full benefit and synergy of effective work teams can be a profoundly powerful tool for an organization committed to the proper deployment, development, management, and leadership of work teams. This is a major reason why the utilization of work teams is experiencing significant expansion across the full spectrum of organizations worldwide.