Creating effective teams to resolve problems or create opportunities is a crucial ingredient to idea management and the success of your organization.  Asociates at Total Quality Systems (TQS) have a long professional relationship with the teaming process including extensive research to promote effective teams that generate bottom-line results.

History of Teams

Some history on teams may be of interest. Teams and teamwork have been a part of the life of people since the beginning of time. We have attempted to harness this valuable resource that invigorates team members and multiplies their value through synergism.

Team processes were used extensively in Venice, Italy around 1300 AD. The Venetians were famous manufacturers, traders and seafarers - dominating the Mediterranean in their day. A type of self managed teams existed in their factories - work teams could bid and subcontract tasks. Maritime crews on the galleys were empowered to establish punishment for offenses and had a voice in how the ship was run. Their culture supported entrepreneurial activity for all participants - including the lowest ship crew member. This allowed Venice to be more efficient and have a much larger impact on the world than a city its size would normally allow.

Recently we saw the team phenomenon become a popular quality tool in the 1970's with the introduction of quality circles. Much of this was based on principle developed at Toyota (Toyota Production System) and other Japanese firms being studied at the time. TQS founder, Bob Schwarz, was a pioneer of quality circles, implementing them at Honeywell in the early 70's.

In recent years, many team concepts have emerged, all with a slightly different or focus:

	Quality Circles
	Self Managing Teams
	Self Directing Teams
	Quality Improvement Teams
	Task Teams
	Corrective Action Teams
	And many others

What are the options today to create successful teams?

As teams became more sophisticated we found a need for better problem solving/problem analysis "tools". These tools range from simple ones like Nominal Group Technique to more sophisticated tools like Quality Function Deployment. The intense manufacturing of World War II made use of Work Flow Analysis and Value Engineering plus the standard Gantt and other charting. Statistical Process Control became a basic process in war related industries. All of these "tools" allowed a number of people to share details of a plan or share data and assess the best outcome or recommendation. All of these tools are familiar to the associates at Total Quality Systems.

Today, teams and problem solving tools are a vital part of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, ISO 9000 and many other quality processes. Our Associates at Total Quality Systems have integrated the needs of these processes into a comprehensive management tool, the SIM software.

Our Associates have a wide range of experience in implementing teams in a variety of concepts using a wide range of problem solving "tools". We were pioneers in the Quality Circle Movement. We have set up and supported self managing teams and self directing teams. We have taught and implemented Statistical Process Control.

Our SIM software management system is designed to support teams through several steps:

	Managing Team Activity - Using the SIM-Integrated Idea Management software we track status of team activities and measure tangible results from the teaming activities. Additionally team meetings and action items can be tracked.
	Getting the Right People on the Team - You want the team to contain members that have the needed technical skills, work in the area under study and have the needed problem solving skills. SIM allows team members to be selected based on a skills inventory or location (department).
	Training - SIM can manage which people have had what training as well as reschedule refresher courses. TQS also provides training courses related to teaming.
	Share - Knowledge and monitor performance using our on-line web-based SIM-Net.
	Keeping Teams Functional - Using standard surveys (TEP) and a unique mini-survey assessment tool (TEAM), we can quickly and effectively measure team health. These tools allow you to better manage teams for less cost. Link that with the SIM software management system and you have a comprehensive solution to managing teaming.

Our task at TQS is continuously improve our processes. We do this via benchmarking the best globally and from feedback working with our clients. This allows us to bring current "Best Practice" solutions to you.