Executive Summary:
Packard Electric Corp. is a leader in power and signal product distribution in the United States. They thought they could do the same thing outside of the US so they opened a plant in Juarez, Mexico to manufacture harnesses for US and other foreign customers. At the beginning, however their results were very poor. Probably, the most important issue was that none of the management had the necessary experience needed for their managerial positions and hardly anyone spoke Spanish. Also, the factory was very poorly equipped that could not compete with the lofty requirements of NUMMI - Packard's immediate customer. Packard was known for their high quality products but NUMMI's expectations were too high to satisfy. The first
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Create and train cross-departmental/organizational teams that would cooperate with each other to increase quality, flexibility, and service that support TQM and JIT
3. Implement cellular "U" shaped manufacturing layout to speed up the manufacturing process
Evaluation of Alternatives:
1.
Strengths:
Could improve productivity, quality, and safety
Could expand multi-process handling
The company could maintain low-cost automation (
Weaknesses:
Initial implementation could be expensive
It would require an outside expertise (costly)
It would probably require reorganization that might be time consuming and costly
2.
Strengths:
Encouraged communication would increase the speed of response time
Involvement of a third party (supplier, customer, logistics, etc...) would significantly improve the quality of service and Just-in-time processing
Cellular teams would encourage positive (enhanced) communication that would result in positive - intrinsic motivation and would broaden their skills and abilities
The product can be standardized and thus more effective manufacturing
Weaknesses:
If one department dominates other departments lose their motivation and their effort towards continuous improvement would be very low
Teamwork can sometimes be stressful and can create conflict that would 'damage' productive relationship between the departments
Competition amongst individual departments (between supplier and manufacturer, or logistics, or customer) would
2 Reduced waste: With improved systems there would be reduction in waste and fewer defects in the products. This will help in adding to the profits. Logistical improvements will help in better organisation of physical space required and viable transportation and reduction in the waiting times for the materials required, thus giving lesser room for wasting time.
While finding a good balance, conflicts will most certainly arise. Conflict resolution strategies must be utilized, for the team to be effective and meet the goals and objective of their assignment. These conflicts may be more evident in certain types of teams more so than in others. Conflict is common when working in teams. Its is important to have team meeting in order to lay out potential problems and disagreements and prepare to support the teams final decision. (Weinstein, 2007)
People work in groups or teams everyday whether in their career, education, political organization, church, or any other social setting. Conflict while working in teams or groups is inevitable. When taking people of different backgrounds, personalities, moral, and ethical beliefs and putting them together in a group, conflict will arise. The key to achieving your team goals is to construct and conquer your goals with keeping the greater good of the team in mind. Conflict as it arises should be combated and abated through swift and thorough resolution techniques. When dealt with properly conflict resolution can give rise to a cohesive and productive team.
I find that the challenges of working together in an established team can be that everyone can become quite self absorbed in their own workload and this can result in conflict when the team sent work together as a whole or lose sight of their shared objectives and goals. It can be difficult to maintain motivation and enthusiasm and not everyone may be on the same page at the same time. I genuinely believe that I am lucky as I work in a team where we are open and honest enough to thrash out any issues quickly and as they arise. We also recognise each other’s own skills and abilities and use each other’s strengths to ensure that our team performs to a high standard.
This exceptional team management and leadership skill demonstrated our ability to get tasks accomplished, regardless of any hurdles staying in our way. Efficient conflict management is critical when managing stress, productivity levels, and team collaboration abilities. The ways in which we handled this conflict inspired creativity, harmony and cohesion amongst our team members. Reacting in a positive, innovative manner helped maintain a positive group dynamic, elevate our problem solving abilities and prevent future conflicts from
Conflict Levels – Effective teams maintain a perfect level of negative and positive conflicts. At times disagreement is encouraged to lessen the likelihood of groupthink.
Team has to agree on the methods to which conflicts can be resolved within the group, this has to be addressed as soon as possible to enhance team cohesion and progress team effort towards achieving its goals.
In my current work environment every department is laid out in a work team structure. This mode of communication and work structure is a very accurate way to work and conduct business. I know in my current team we all work together and with seamless efforts. We are able to create an even and smooth work balance and work load working as a team. In our team we back each other up in every aspect. The best part about our team and its functions is the ability to cross train in each other’s job, so if anyone is out we can keep the team running without creating a lot of backup work. If team members have the wrong mental models, which is particularly likely to happen with teams under acute stress, their performance suffers (Robbins
In this paper I will discuss how a team leader assesses how big the team is needed in order to accomplish the task assigned to them. This paper will also discuss the how conflicts can arise while trying to meet their goals. Such as which person works better in certain areas. I will also talk about how a team leader resolves their problems that may accure. In addition I will also discuss if team work will take longer to complete task along with some of its advantages. I will also point out some of the resistors to team work like not have the proper tools or supplies. I will also discuss how to be proactive so
“Team conflict may occur among members hailing from different fields of professions, such as in a cross-functional project team, or between line workers (who work directly with the product or service) and staff teams (who provide behind-the-scenes support). It may also occur as a result of perceived inequities in group member status or productivity, personality differences, or other work-related problems.” (Organizational Communication, 2010, pg 223).
2. Set up a quality team that includes union and management members of the company
In many aspects of our life, it is pervasive to work in a team. No matter in company, school, or another type of team it is necessary to be a part of a team and to achieve a team goal by corporations. People join a team with different personalities, goals, values, beliefs and needs. On the one hand, these differences can be a valuable quality of teams. On the other hand, these same differences inevitably lead to different levels of conflicts as well.
There can be many factors that play a role, when conflict arises within a team. Often there can be
Conflict is inevitable and at times stimulates beneficial or creative thinking. Often conflict is a signal that people are miscommunicating and making different assumptions about what has gone unspoken. The conflict in itself is not the problem. It is the team’s reactions to it that determines the impact, thus causing it to be a negative experience. Conflict or divergence can be destructive or it can be constructive. It is up to the people involved in the conflict to manage the outcome. This gives them an opportunity to articulate their assumptions and figure out a way to come to agreement. In a learning team situation, conflict can arise when the original agreement to work together does not address
A further disadvantage of teamwork may be that the team has existed too long and inspiration of new ideas has expired. This idea is discussed in Fincham and Rhodes (2005). There is a risk of team members becoming too friendly with each other and that friendships and professional relationships may be difficult to distinguish. If this occurs, team work is affected as it may be easy for team members to become distracted by personal issues rather than focussing on the task set. In this way team work may become less effective. It is important that team members remain professional when working in