BUS603: Managing People

In the manufacturing process of the company where the study was conducted, when a product requires a replacement part, a swapping sub-process is then followed, where different teams or groups of different areas conform a virtual work group (for this particular sub-process), they participate actively in order to obtain the required part in time, following the required processes, fulfilling and even over-passing the objectives established. This is a key and sensitive sub-process, due the product will be on hold until a good part is obtained, replaced, tested and only then, it can be returned to the manufacturing process again. The cost for having a product in this condition is high in several and different manners, like storing, waiting, transportation, moving/storing materials/paper-work, that according to the Lean 6-Sigma initiative, those are waste in the process and have non-value add (NVA) to customers. In addition, the materials' handling increases the possibility of damage in the product, and also impacts the cost. Thus, the different teams that participate require to be focused and have an effective communication and collaboration mechanism.

This is the main reason why we decided to built a system that supports this virtual work group and established the following research question: How an integrated and web-based IT infrastructure conformed by dashboards, workflow, and a part's tracking system, can provide of a mechanism for an effective communication and collaboration for a virtual work group in a manufacturing process?. Other objectives for this initiative and project are: improve the compromise and responsibility between participants, and collect historic information to perform further analysis.