Self-Managed Teams, An Innovative Approach to Shop Floor Management

Background: Hierarchical approach to manage the shop-floor assumes that the people , higher up in the hierarchy ,automatically qualify to be the decision makers and leaders even for knowledge and skill based routine jobs on shop floor and thus end up doing repetitive tasks .They ignore their strategic and developmental tasks.

In Self- managed work teams concept, employees on shop floor get an opportunity to organize and control their work. For efficient shop floor management, it is critical to create shop floor teams. This paper tries to explain how this concept was applied on shop floor after study of theory.

The success of self- managed team is a function of organizational endeavour to develop competency of employees in technical and behavioural fields. They are trained in these aspects at the time of induction.

Implementation design consists of induction training and daily work management.

The concept can be implemented as an effective shop floor management tool to develop self-managed teams in a new set up. However it may be difficult to implement the concept in older organizations. A different methodology may have to be evolved.

In new organizations, new employees are keen to learn in a greenfield situation. They own the responsibility of implementation through shared learning. They also achieve the deliverables with joyful ownership and collaboration as evident from the survey.

In old organizations who have operated in the traditional way,

• It is difficult to overcome the mind-sets of dependency,authority, power through position and comfort of doing repetitive jobs.

• During the transition, tremendous amount of energy is required to combat the reactionary tendencies. Change Management assumes the profile of old v/s new rather than innovation.

1. This model can give excellent operational and human potential developmental results. Role of supervisor becomes redundant; reinvention of a more diversified job profile has to be done.

2. Excellent and empowered shop-floor teams are created.

The concept reconfirms the basic values of human nature of recognition and freedom which has been overshadowed by the age old management practices.

Management is a mere facilitator in this model .It is an enhancer and not a watch dog or monitor and therefore it is an original innovation.