Robust and Reliable Teamwork within Engineering Projects 2011-01-1273

The quality of the output generated by a team is directly influenced by how well the team works together. Despite the complexity of the team system, within a typical Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) project the consideration given to the team process is often disproportionately small in comparison to that paid to the technical aspects of the project. This paper presents an efficient approach to teamwork within an engineering design context such as a DFSS project, in which team skills are modelled on DFSS technical processes allowing team members to learn both technical and teamwork skills within the common context of the technical process. DFSS engineering tools used within the framework of Failure Mode Avoidance are used to identify key potential failure modes in the team process and their effects and causes. A series of effective and efficient countermeasures to the team process failure modes are introduced as straight forward and easy to use interlinking teamwork tools. The use of the approach presented in the paper to virtual teams is discussed. An efficient training strategy for DFSS technical and teamwork skills is put forward.