What type of team(s) do these employee teams appear to be? Explain. As this story illustrated, sometimes it may take a long time for a team to reach its goal. As a manager, how would you motivate a team to keep on trying? What role do you think a team leader needs to play in this type of setting? Explain.
737 Teaming Up for Takeoff
Case Study
The Boeing 737, a short- to medium-range twin-engine, narrow-body jet, first rolled off the assembly line in 1967.77 Here, almost half a century later, it’s the best-selling jet airliner in the history of aviation. As airlines replace their aging narrow-body jet fleets, the burden is on Boeing to ramp up production to meet demand and to do so efficiently.
As Boeing managers state, “How do you produce more aircraft without expanding the building?” Managing production of the multimillion-dollar product—a 737-800 is sold for $84.4 million—means “walking an increasingly fine line between generating cash and stoking an airplane glut.” And Boeing is relying on its employee innovation teams to meet the challenge.
Boeing has been using employee-generated ideas since the 1990s, when its manufacturing facility in Renton, Washington, began adopting “lean” manufacturing techniques. Today, employee teams are leaving “few stones unturned.” For instance, a member of one team thought of a solution to a problem of stray metal fasteners sometimes puncturing the tires as the airplane advanced down the assembly line. The solution? A canvas wheel cover that hugs the four main landing-gear tires.
Another team figured out how to rearrange its work space to make four engines at a time instead of three. Another team of workers in the paint process revamped their work routines and cut 10 minutes to 15 minutes per worker off each job. It took five years for another employee team to perfect a process for installing the plane’s landing gear hydraulic tubes, but it eventually paid off.
These employee teams are made up of 7 to 10 workers with “varying backgrounds”—from mechanics to assembly workers to engineers—and tend to focus on a specific part of a jet, such as the landing gear or the passenger seats or the galleys. These teams may meet as often as once a week. What’s the track record of these teams? Today, it takes about 11 days for the final assembly of a 737 jet. That’s down from 22 days about a decade ago. The near-term goal is to eventually shave off two more days.
- What type of team(s) do these employee teams appear to be? Explain.
- As this story illustrated, sometimes it may take a long time for a team to reach its goal. As a manager, how would you motivate a team to keep on trying?
- What role do you think a team leader needs to play in this type of setting? Explain.
- Using Exhibit 13-9 (Slide #20), what characteristics of effective teams would these teams need? Explain.
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