The Importance of Teamwork

If there is one thought that I can hope to impress upon your mind, let it be the importance of teamwork!  I am reminded of an old Japanese proverb, "A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle".  One person alone may feel overwhelmed, or lack the confidence and skills to accomplish the task. However, what one man does not know, someone else might! Remember the expression, "Two Heads are Better than One"?  One single thought provokes another, and yet another, until we have a flow of massive input that often helps the problem to become obvious, and thus, it becomes resolved. There is also an old Chinese proverb, "One man is not an army, but many men are a force." The importance of teamwork cannot be emphasized enough. Together, a group of people can solve just about any problem out there.

Cross-Functional Teams

The Quality world refers to teamwork as a cross- functional team gathered together with a common goal or purpose. By cross-functional, we mean a group of people from different departments within the company. A "cross- functional" team can be a powerful organizational vehicle that brings together diverse talents to solve a business problem. This cross-functional team should consist of members from management, workers on the floor who actually perform the task, engineering, quality people, and any other relevant department that has input into the product.

8D Team

The Ford Motor Company developed a problem solving process for cross-functional teams and called it an "8D TEAM". Ford Motor Company also developed the process for the team to follow, which they termed the "8D Problem-Solving Process" (Click BELOW for an Adobe/.pdf version). The purpose is to provide company-wide accountability and participation, to gain the various expertise and experience within a company, and to educate everyone involved about the project and its goals. This team works together to"brain-storm" their ideas and recommendations to solve the problem at hand. To facilitate this problem solving session, or to solve any production problems, you first need to have data, or collect some data.