Effects of team work on the working conditions of short cycled track work: A case study from the European automobile industry

One of the most unfavourable conditions for the introduction of team work in the automotive industry is in most cases the pre-determination of technical equipment which will remain unchanged because of the investment costs of installations. Still assembly processes with short cycle times less than 90 s prevail. For this reason the work organization has to adapt to given limitations which are hampering the process of team work, because the fashioning of work places and work areas cannot be done fully according to the principles of industrial psychology. Nonetheless, there have been major efforts to change the organization of shop floor into a powerful and effective instrument to gain productivity, higher quality and to continuously improve on the production process by a limiting the number of shop floor workers. Team work as a concept that includes job rotation, job enlargement and enrichment into work could have the potential to reduce stress and strain on the workers. In the course of a three-year study, seven European, one North American and one Japanese manufacturers were surveyed regarding their work organization focussing on assembly departments. For the survey, 121 job analyses were made and 1312 shop floor workers were polled about their subjective job estimation with the help of a standardised questionnaire. For this article, six European and one Japanese manufacturer were selected from the sample. This article will show that the expression “team work” is very differently understood due to differences in national, regional or company culture. It proves that regardless of the tight boundaries of the production system the work organization can be very flexible. Potentially stress generating technical and organizational conditions can be identified by our definitions. But the individual realization of stress does not correlate in the cross-sectional examination. Lasting effects of team work have to be examined in ongitudinal surveys. Ongoing evaluation of the development of the work organization and team as a sort of social benchmarking is necessary to monitor the processes and to set targets for further development. Relevance to industry The introduction of team work has been accompanied by considerable investments from companies. The article gives a hint which indicators might be used for the monitoring of successful team work.