Concurrent

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Concurrent Teams
IGDS Concurrent Engineering Module, 25th February
2003
Duncan Greenman Engineering Capability
Development Manager, Airbus UK
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What are concurrent teams? What elements
should they contain? Should all disciplines be
involved? What type of people do we need? Do
different levels of teams need different
disciplines and/or types of people? for
example .
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Human Resources, Engineering Resource
Development
Planning and Control
Research and Technology, Engineering Processes
Methods
Design / Structures
Support in service
Flight Physics
Future Projects
Production
Manufacturing Engineering
Procurement / Supply Chain Management
Product Integrity
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• Some Issues ..
• How are team members chosen?
• How are teams formed or disbanded?
• Are internal team dynamics important?
• How do we deal with multi-layered matrix
  management?
• How do teams accommodate individual
  accountabilities and responsibilities?
• Do modern electronic forms of communication
  make
• co-located teams obsolete?
• What skills do todays engineers need?
• What are todays scarce skills?

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How are team members chosen? Why do you want a
particular person in your team?

• A close friend ?
• Someone you admire ?
• Good technical skills ?
• Good people skills ?
• Makes decisions quickly ?
• Experienced ?
• Female / Male ?
• Easy to boss around ?

• Too challenging ?
• Too aggressive ?
• Not a team player ?
• Too tech-ie and sad ?
• Too new to the company ?
• Female / Male ?
• Too senior for available role ?
• Friend of the boss ?

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How are team members chosen? Why
do you want a particular person in your team?
Source - Meredith Belbin Team Roles At Work, 1993
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How are teams formed (and disbanded)?

• Do they just join the team when they are
  available?
• Are they the people you want or are they the
  ones that are available?
• How do you get the person you really want, but
  who is being under-used in another role?
  
• Do you have a formal team launch event?
• Do you invite your customer?
• Do you invite your suppliers?
• How do you find out if your suppliers can
  actually do the job?
• Do you hang on to good people just in case?
• Do you hold a celebration event on disbanding?

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Are internal team dynamics important? Belbin
- Team Roles
Source - Meredith Belbin Team Roles At Work, 1993
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Are internal team dynamics important? Belbin
Styles of Leadership
Source - Meredith Belbin Team Roles At Work, 1993
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Are internal team dynamics important?
Margerison and McCann The
Team Management Wheel
Source Margerison McCann Team Management, 1990
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How do we cope with multi-layer matrix
management ?
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How do we cope with multi-layer matrix
management ?
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How do teams accommodate individual
accountabilities and responsibilities?

• To be successful, each team should have
• A clear set of objectives and timescales.
• A single person accountable for the teams
  deliverables.
• A person who takes responsibility for resource
  issues.
• A person who takes responsibility for project
  management.
• Some innovative team members.
• Appropriate technical experts.
• People who are simply workers probably the
  majority.
• Good visibility of their suppliers and
  customers.
• Mutual tolerance and respect.

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Do modern forms of communication make teams
obsolete?
Electronic data vaults - Single source of the
latest data. Enables dispersed working.
Permits follow the sun working. . But
makes quality and task management more
difficult and is no use when the
system goes down.
Electronic mail - No time restrictions on
communications. Copy can be stored in
paperless form. . But product liability
dangers relies on good common
language writing skills useless if the system
is down.
People still need to meet and to see for
themselves.
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What (skills) do todays engineers need?

• High level technical skills.
• For some, leadership skills.
• Good business understanding.
• Good interpersonal and team working skills.
• The ability to think innovatively.
• The ability to challenge.
• Speak at least one other modern language.
• The desire to develop themselves.
• Adaptability, and ..
• A sense of humour.

A sort of Concurrent People
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What (skills) are scarce today?

• High level technical skills.
• For some, leadership skills.
• Good business understanding.
• Good interpersonal and team working skills.
• The ability to think innovatively.
• The ability to challenge.
• Speak at least one other modern language.
• The desire to develop themselves.
• Adaptability, and ..
• A sense of humour.

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Is knowledge management important?
No in Airbus, its critical !!

• Being world leaders, we can rarely recruit the
  skills we need, we have to develop our
  existing staff ourselves.
• With a product life cycle that can be 70 years,
  we have to maintain all the skills to support
  our legacy aircraft.
• We need to manage the exit of our staff, to
  ensure we minimise the loss of skill,
  experience, etc. through coaching our
  younger and/or less experienced staff.
• Where possible, electronic knowledge management
  of processes is used.

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Concurrent People Concurrent Teams Concurrent
Engineering
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AIRBUS