Group Fabrication to Self-Designing Work Teams

Abstract

The discussion of work teams in Germany as an alternative to the tayloristic division of labor and functional specialization can be traced back to the beginnings of the 20th century. At a Daimler factory group fabrication was introduced, integrating different parts, machines, and professionals in a group. They completely finished a product such as a water pump or a gearing although work specialization even increased. However it took more than sixty years that group technology and manufacturing cells found broader interest in industry. The main reasons for this renewed interest were changing market characteristics demanding a higher amount of flexibility, quality and productivity than the traditional tayloristic work structures could achieve. In particular the upcoming discussion of lean production at the beginning of the 90’s furthered the spread of work teams in German industrial and service companies significantly. In contrast the discussion of quality of work life and industrial democracy in the 70’s remained restricted to the scientific community and a few government sponsored pilot projects. In the 90’s work teams were primarily perceived as a means to increase productivity and flexibility. Nevertheless many companies integrated ideas from the discussion about quality of work life from the early 70’s, such as self regulation, job enrichment, and election of the team speaker. However the current focus on short term share holder value will put even more pressure on work teams to increase productivity. This might endanger group self-regulation and continuous improvement and strengthen traditional cost cutting strategies such as overhead reduction.