A PROPOSED CONCEPTUAL MODEL TO ANALYZE TEAM CONGRUENCE AT A LARGE MANUFACTURERING OPERATION

摘要

Large manufacturers progressively implementing lean across their organization must establish a balanced pull system. Implementing lean across an organization takes time, over which individuals and teams will go through training to understand lean and its application to their work. Looking at an organization as a system it is important to understand the role each team plays in the work of other teams. Lean implementations in one area has the potential to disrupt production in another. Establishing a balanced pull system requires understanding the current state of the organization, the motivation from each team (their Weltanschauung), the interconnectedness of individual teams, and what can be done to limit disruption to the final production schedule while progressing with lean implementation. We propose an approach to identifying the current state and motivations that exist in each team of the organization, the first portion of creating a balanced pull system. Step one is a preliminary survey that provides a basic understanding of the current state that exists for each team in the organization, and their basic motivations. Step two involves application of interviews with unique protocols based on each team's progression through the lean implementation. The interviews provide a more complete understanding of the current state in each teams' areas and the Weltanschauung of each team as a whole. Engineering managers reading this paper can benefit by realizing the importance of looking at their organization and lean implementation efforts as a system.