Abstract
The decision to use work teams should be placed in the broader context of the organization’s competitive and manufacturing strategies. The overall premise is that, for work teams to be truly effective within the organization, they must be geared to provide capabilities or outcomes that are valued by the firm as a whole. In other words, teams should add value to the firm’s products and services in ways that are meaningful to the marketplace. This implies an outward-looking view of team design: teams should be empowered to take actions that, either directly or indirectly, support the organization’s sources of competitive advantage.
Depending on its charter and design, manufacturing work teams may provide improvements in operational efficiency, quality, delivery, and flexibility. In turn, the organization may exploit these improvements through either low price or product differentiation strategies.
The use of teams as a way to organize people and conduct work is not a new phenomenon in business. What is new is the dramatic increase in the use of teams and the variety of purposes for which they are used. Teams are becoming pervasive in manufacturing organizations because they provide a variety of benefits (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993). While teams certainly have their place in the modern manufacturing organization, they should not be formed indiscriminately. If not used properly, teams may fail to provide the benefits hoped for and may even be harmful to manufacturing performance (Campion, Medsker and Higgs; 1993).
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McCreery, J.K., Bloom, M.C. (2000). Teams: Design and Implementation. In: Swamidass, P.M. (eds) Innovations in Competitive Manufacturing. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1705-4_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1705-4_9
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