Section Tworequire compensation approaches that reward teamwork, such
as gain sharing or team bonuses.^50
Aside from their complexity and the potential
disadvantages of teams, there is great interest in their potential
contributions. For example, in design and production situations,
cross-functional work teams have been found to be effective in
reducing the time required from initial product design to
eventual production through simultaneous engineering. Such
teams, which typically include both design and production
engineering personnel, as well as program managers who
mediate differences, are ideally housed in the same area.
Another benefit derived from these teams is the broadening
experience that takes place within the teams across
engineering specialties.^51
An example of the use of work teams having a great deal
of autonomy is provided by the experiences of Steelcase, Inc.,
which introduced work teams into its new Context plant. The
plant’s hourly employees are organized into some 47 work
teams, several of which are cross-functional in nature. In
addition to normal production work, these teams perform many
activities that normally would have been managerial
responsibilities, such as scheduling production, scheduling
vacations, ordering materials, and purchasing new equipment.