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Team Case Study
Introduction
Electron, a small manufacturing company located in the North of England was established in 1997. Electron manufactures components for the telecommunications sector. The UK headquarters employs 150 people, with 90 people in the manufacturing department. Electron was originally a division of a large telecommunications firm, and the Electron management team, purchased the component manufacturing department as part of an outsourcing scheme introduced by the parent company in 2007. However, the original parent company remains Electron’s largest customer. Electron operates through a traditional departmental structure, consisting of manufacturing, engineering, sales/marketing, human resources, and finance. The structure of Electron’s business remained the same as when it was part of the parent company. Electron has both full-time and part-time staff. The management division of Electron realised that in the late 1990s, the company was struggling to survive in a competitive and innovative marketplace. In order to improve their market competitiveness Electron identified they needed a more effective and efficient production processes with an emphasis on improving company culture, customer service, increased productivity and a commitment to teamwork. It was clear from their analysis that the inherited operating structure from the parent company was not the most efficient method and that a new structure needed to be introduced.
The manufacturing department at Electron is made up of eight teams in total, each are named according to a colour. The team colours are: red, blue, white, green, silver, aqua, purple and yellow. All of the teams consist of 10 team members, with some on temporary contracts, whilst others are full-time employees. The teams contain female and male workers, with an age range of between 25 and 50 years old. In 2007, when the focus on teamwork became more prevalent, the teams were each given an objective. The teams’ objective…