Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency by Tom Demarco

Author:Tom Demarco [Demarco, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2001-11-26T14:00:00+00:00

1. The first of these is Volvo, which during the 1980s hit upon a team-based vehicle assembly scheme that would have given Taylor fits. A team of workers is assigned to a given vehicle from the beginning (at this “beginning,” there really is no vehicle, only an empty spot on the assembly line where the vehicle will begin to take shape). The team follows the vehicle all the way along the assembly line. Members of the team change their functions as the vehicle moves along. They weld when welding is called for, bolt on parts, wire in electronic sub-assemblies, dip and paint and clean, apply upholstery and cushioning and fabric, snap in the windshield, mount the wheels and tires, balance and test, wax and polish. At the end, the team members scratch their signatures with a diamond-tipped pen under one of the fenders.

This is a model that deviates from Taylorism in nearly every way. The vehicle team is made up of generalists, not specialists. Each of them needs to master an extended set of skills. Their days and hours are strikingly varied. Their identification is with one entire vehicle, not with one tiny aspect of all vehicles.

2. My second example is the Post cereal factory in Jones-boro, Arkansas. Here, too, a factory that could be run in strict Taylor methodology is run in an entirely different way. Three shifts are organized into three teams, each responsible for running the factory its own way during its eight hours. Though each team makes the same products and strives toward the same targets as the others, the decisions about how and when the various component activities are carried out are left to the individual teams. The teams even have the authority to close down their lines for brief periods, get together and brainstorm, and invent new ways to get the job done.

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