Chapter 10 Notes

Teamwork and Good Workplace Conduct to Solve Problems

This chapter will go over what it means to work in a team, good team behaviors and conduct to solve issues and problems that may arise.

First, we must start by defining what a Team is. A team is a group of people who work together toward a common goal, usually aiming to achieve this objective within a time constraint. Typically contains 3 or more members.

Emphasizes cooperation and collaboration among all team members to help improve the teams' efficiency and effectiveness. The key to this idea is Cooperation. Doing this requires the sharing of ideas, knowledge, skills, information, resources, responsibility, and recognition.

Characteristics
Teams often need more clear roles and responsibilities within the group to meet goals. If a team doesn’t have this, they’ll most likely be confused. High-Performance Teams normally meet regularly to update and assign job assignments.
In addition, they ALWAYS require respect among team members. Even to a small degree, this prevents conflicts from arising.
Another extremely important part of working in a team is knowing how to take criticism and feedback. You won’t always be right, and accepting that and learning to see other views and contrast them to yours is a very big part of teamwork.

A group of workers who are responsible for a similar process within supply chain logistics. It is vital to encourage cooperation between peers to establish good communication within the team.

A team that focuses on a single major issue of concern within a given process.

Members typically take time out of their normal responsibilities to be a part of this team

A team made up of employees from different departments and sectors within a logistics facility or between logistics facilities. An example of this would be a safety project team that deals with common safety and accuracy issues might be made up of people from the receiving, storing, shipping, and transportation departments.

You might be asking, what does this stand for? I’m kidding, that's what I’m asking. I notoriously suck with this acronym. But I digress, this acronym stands for:

Specific
The goal has to be specific. For example, if the goal was just “improving safety”, that can cover a lot of things. But if it was something like “reducing the number of work-related back injuries on the production line”, that’s a lot more specific and can be worked on more efficiently

Measurable
By adding a number or a percentage, you can track your progress from where you started. So building on our old specific goal, it would be “Reducing the number of work-related back injuries on the production line by 50%”. Measurable, and Specific!

Achieveable
Goals should be challenging but achievable. When setting a goal, a team should be realistic about their ambitions. If they were to say “Eliminating ALL work-related back injuries on the assembly line”, that would be unachievable. But it is more realistic to try and drop that number by 50%.

Relevant
The goal should line up with the company’s interests. If the company's mission is to reduce the number of work-related injuries across the board by 30% in 2 years, then the team's goal should support that effort.

Time-Based
This means setting a realistic but challenging deadline for your goal. For example, our old goal would now be “Reducing the number of work-related back injuries on the production line by 50% in 2 years”

Includes 7 Steps that are the most common for a team to follow.

Define the Problem
Before you can solve a problem, you must know what the problem is. This also includes defining the desired outcome.

Analyze the Problem
Before any strategy can be formed, a team must determine why the problem is occurring.

Generating Alternative Solutions
The team's solution does not have to be original. Maybe someone else has covered a similar problem and found a solution for it.

Choosing the Best Solution
The best solution is the one that will allow the team to meet its goal within the time, budget, and other constraints. This step involves weighing the pros and cons of each solution and comparing and contrasting them.

Test the Solution
Implementation is the process of putting an idea into action. Members of the team may need to break the solution down into steps to perform and assign tasks on a schedule for team members.

Monitor and Evaluate
Constant review and evaluation is crucial when implementing a new procedure. The team should meet often to discuss the progress of the solution and find ways to improve and tweak it so it becomes more efficient. Nothing is perfect on the first try.

Implement the Best Solution
Once the team has found a solution that meets their goals, it should be implemented and monitored to ensure continual development.