High-Performance Partnering by Self-Managed Teams in Manufacturing

This article reports on a major motorcycle manufacturer that was experiencing increasing levels of customer and employee dissatisfaction as a result of a critical inability to keep up with product demand. The manufacturer introduced self-managed work teams, work system integration of design, and process implementation strategies, which are well on the way to becoming the standard for the industry. This article reports on and describes a high-performance work system infrastructure employed to successfully implement the transformation from a traditional assembly line to self-managed team-based production.