Using language that is easy to understand, Cross-Functional Productivity Improvement describes how improvement efforts can be undermined by errors and incompleteness. It illustrates the various types of errors that can hurt productivity and outlines proven solutions to prevent or correct them. Explaining how departments not directly related to manufacturing can hinder productivity, it provides time-tested advice on how to reduce waste and enhance efficiency. The book starts with an overview of traditional productivity improvement methods. Subsequent chapters explain how different departments can affect productivity and describe what must be done to improve productivity. Supplying time-tested procedures for implementing cross-functional productivity actions that are applicable across a wide range of industries, the text describes the problems caused by incorrect Lean manufacturing, material flow, efficiency, ergonomics, quality policies, issues of malpractice, and counterproductive procedures. Includes many figures, illustrations, and tables that provide the technical information needed to implement sustainable productivity improvements Addresses the problems often caused by incorrect Lean manufacturing and issues of malpractice Includes an extensive glossary and a list of suggested readings to help readers further explore productivity improvement Readers will gain a clear understanding of exactly what to do and what not to do in all aspects of company operations to maximize productivity through a cross-functional approach. Furthermore, the book will enable companies to take better advantage of all that the ISO 9001 and similar systems have to offer by making best use of the interactions between the various elements of company operations.

Using language that is easy to understand, Cross-Functional Productivity Improvement describes how improvement efforts can be undermined by errors and incompleteness. It illustrates the various types of errors that can hurt productivity and outlines proven solutions to prevent or correct them. Explaining how departments not directly related to manufacturing can hinder productivity, it provides time-tested advice on how to reduce waste and enhance efficiency. The book starts with an overview of traditional productivity improvement methods. Subsequent chapters explain how different departments can affect productivity and describe what must be done to improve productivity. Supplying time-tested procedures for implementing cross-functional productivity actions that are applicable across a wide range of industries, the text describes the problems caused by incorrect Lean manufacturing, material flow, efficiency, ergonomics, quality policies, issues of malpractice, and counterproductive procedures. Includes many figures, illustrations, and tables that provide the technical information needed to implement sustainable productivity improvements Addresses the problems often caused by incorrect Lean manufacturing and issues of malpractice Includes an extensive glossary and a list of suggested readings to help readers further explore productivity improvement Readers will gain a clear understanding of exactly what to do and what not to do in all aspects of company operations to maximize productivity through a cross-functional approach. Furthermore, the book will enable companies to take better advantage of all that the ISO 9001 and similar systems have to offer by making best use of the interactions between the various elements of company operations.

In this completely revised version of his best-selling book, Cross-Functional Teams: Working with Allies, Enemies, and Strangers, author and consultant Glenn Parker updates his definitive practical guide to include his recent work in team rewards and recognition, communications technology, and multicultural and virtual-team issues. This new edition contains fresh examples and additional case studies of successful cross-functional teams from IBM, Parke-Davis, Xerox, Boeing, BOC Gases, government agencies, and more. Parker offers concrete advice and inspiration to team leaders, team members, and senior management. Cross-Functional Teams delivers a team operating manual to executives, team leaders, human resource professionals, and students of organizational behavior and provides a tool kit of assessment surveys, worksheets, checklists, and even sample training programs to help launch and sustain effective teams.

Named the Best Management Book of 2021 by strategy+business Named one of "this month's top titles" in the Financial Times in September 2021 Named to the longlist for the 2021 Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Award in the Management & Culture category A plan for conquering collaborative overload to drive performance and innovation, reduce burnout, and enhance well-being. Most organizations have created always-on work contexts that are burning people out and hurting performance rather than delivering productivity, innovation and engagement. Collaborative work consumes 85% of employees' time and is drifting earlier into the morning, later into the night, and deeper into the weekend. The dilemma is that we all need to collaborate more to create effective organizations and vibrant careers for ourselves. But conventional wisdom on teamwork and collaboration has created too much of the wrong kind of collaboration, which hurts our performance, health and overall well-being. In Beyond Collaboration Overload, Babson professor Rob Cross solves this paradox by showing how top performers who thrive at work collaborate in a more purposeful way that makes them 18-24% more efficient than their peers. Good collaborators are distinguished by the efficiency and intentionality of their collaboration—not the size of their network or the length of their workday. Through landmark research with more than 300 organizations, in-depth stories, and tools, Beyond Collaboration Overload will coach you to reclaim close to a day a week when you: Identify and challenge beliefs that lead you to collaborate too quickly Impose structure in your work to prevent unproductive collaboration Alter behaviors to create more efficient collaboration It then outlines how successful people invest this reclaimed time to: Cultivate a broad network—not a big one—for innovation and scale Energize others—a strong predictor of high performance Connect with others to reduce micro-stressors and enhance physical and mental well-being Cross' framework provides relief from the definitive problem of our age—dysfunctional collaboration at the expense of our performance, health and overall well-being.

Diverse kinds of knowledge are vital for each organization that would successfully compete today in an international scenario. The emergent relevance of knowledge and its management in an even more complex environment opens up the possibility to analyze, investigate and deepen our understanding on different aspects related to several functional areas in business management. Nowadays, firms that create new knowledge and apply it effectively and efficiently will be successful at creating competitive advantages. The choices of the firms in selecting and applying different knowledge process (such as knowledge sourcing, transferring and exploiting) as well as knowledge tools may be crucial. Thus, the role of knowledge as the key source of potential advantage for organizations and indeed whole economies is still a hot debate in the international landscape. This book develops insights for the management of knowledge in cross-functional business areas to originate an innovative approach to the classical Knowledge Management (KM) field. This book provides a fresh perspective on different knowledge related topics in an international landscape, highlighting the key role of knowledge and its management in business activities. Overall, the primary aim of this book is to extend our understandings on how KM can be helpful in several cross-functional management areas, such as strategic management, finance, HRM and innovation as well as in different business circumstances such as M&A, internationalization processes and risk management.

Written by two experts who have dedicated their careers to quality improvement, Escape the Improvement Trap: Five Ingredients Missing in Most Improvement Recipes separates itself from other improvement books by looking at why most companies rarely achieve anything more than an average level of improvement maturity. They identify five critical ingre

This practical hands-on tool kit for managers demonstrates when, where, and how to implement significant organizational change through teamwork. The use of self-managed, cross-functional, benchmarking, and outside linking teams by high-performance firms is employed in a case study format.