Team Behavior and Tools

Chapter 4

1References:
1. Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. ©2013.The McGraw-Hill Companies
Objectives
 To provide time-tested tips and advice for becoming an
effective team member
 To introduce a set of problem-solving tools that are useful
in carrying our design project, as well as everyday life
 To emphasize the importance of project planning to success
in design, and to provide some ideas of how to increase skill
in this activity

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A Good Team Member
 There is a set of attitudes and work habits that you need to
adopt to be a good team member:

 Take responsibility for the success of the team

 Be a person who delivers on commitments(Taahhütlerini yerine getiren)
 Be a contributor to discussions
 Give your full attention to whomever is speaking and demonstrate this
by asking helpful questions
 Develop techniques for getting your message across the team
 Learn to give and receive useful feedback

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Characteristics of an Effective Team
 Team goals are as important as individual goals
 The team understands the goals and is committed to achieving them
 Trust replaces fear, and people feel comfortable taking risks
 Respect, collaboration, and open-mindedness are prevalent
 Team members communicate readily; diversity of opinions is
encouraged
 Decisions are made by consensus and have the acceptance and support
of the members of the team

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Student Design versus Business World
Team
 Student Design teams differ in several important respects
from a team in the business world:
 Team members are all close to the same age and level of formal
education
 Team members are peers and no one has authority over the
other team members
 Team members often prefer to work without a designated leader
in a shared leadership environment

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Team Sponsor
 An important role that is external to the team but vital to
its performance is the team sponsor.

 The team sponsor is the manager who has the need for the
output of the team. In the case of the student design project
the sponsor is the course instructor or a representative
from a company proposing the project.

 The team sponsor provides any special resources needed by

the team, and formally commissions the team.

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Team Leader
 The team leader convenes and chairs the team meetings
using effective meeting management practices.

 He or she guides and manages the day-to-day activity of the

team by:
 Tracking the team’s accomplishment toward stated goals
 Helping team members to develop their skills
 Communicating with the sponsor about progress
 Trying to remove barriers toward progress
 Helping to resolve conflict within the team

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Important Team Challenges
 Safety:
 Are the members of the team safe from destructive personal attacks?
 Inclusion:
 Team members need to be allowed equal opportunities to participate.
 Appropriate level of interdependence:
 Is there an appropriate balance between the individuals’ needs and the team needs?
 Cohesiveness:
 Is there appropriate bonding between members of the team?
 Trust:
 Do team members trust each other and the leader?
 Conflict resolution:
 Does the team have a way to resolve conflict?
 Influence:
 Do team members or the team as a whole have influence over members?
 Accomplishment:
 Can the team perform tasks and achieve goals?

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Different Behavioral Roles Found in Groups

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Importance of Team Meetings
 Much of the work of teams is accomplished in team
meetings.

 It is in these meetings that the collective talent of the team

members is brought to bear on the problem, and in the
process, all members of the team “buy in” to the problem
and develop a solution.

 Students who complain about design projects taking too much

time often are really expressing their inability to organize their
meetings and manage their time effectively.
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Helpful Rules for Meeting Success(1 to 7)
 Pick a regular meeting location and try not to change it.
 Pick a meeting location that:
 Is agreeable, accessible to all, and conducive to work!
 Has breathing room when there is full attendance!
 Has a pad and easel in the room!
 Is not too hot, too cold, or too close to noisy distractions!
 Regular meeting times are not as important as confirming the time of
meetings.
 Send an email reminder to team members just before the first of several
meetings.
 If you send materials out in advance of a meeting, bring extra copies just in
case people forget to bring theirs, or they did no arrive.
 Start on time!
 Pass out an agenda at the beginning of the meeting and get the team’s
concurrence with the agenda

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Helpful Rules for Meeting Success(8 to 15)
 Rotate the responsibility for writing summaries of each meeting.
 Notice members who come late, leave early, or miss meetings.
 Observe team members who are not speaking.
 Occasionally use meeting evaluations to gather anonymous
feedback on how the group is working together.
 Do not bring guests or staff support or add team members
without seeking the permission of the team.
 Avoid canceling meetings!
 End every meeting by creating a list of action items.
 Follow up with any person who does not attend.

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Problem Solving Tools

13
Effective Strategy for Problem Solving
 Problem Definition

 Cause Finding

 Solution Finding and Implementation

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Effective Strategy for Problem Solving
 Problem Definition

 Cause Finding

 Solution Finding and Implementation

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Example 4.1: “Why do so few senior engineering
students choose to do a research project?”

 Problem Statement : A group of engineering honors students was

concerned that more engineering seniors were not availing themselves
of the opportunity to do a senior research project. All engineering
departments listed this as a course option, but only about 5 percent of
the students chose this option.To properly define the problem, the
team brainstormed about the question,

 “Why do so few senior engineering students choose to do a research

project?”

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Brainstorming: Why do so few senior engineering
students choose to do a research project?”
 Students are too busy.
 Professors do not talk up research opportunity.
 Students are thinking about getting a job.
 Students are thinking about getting married.
 They are interviewing for jobs.
 They don’t know how to select a research topic. I
 ’m not interested in research. I want to work in manufacturing.
 I don’t know what research the professors are interested in.
 The department does not encourage students to do research.
 I am not sure what research entails.
 It is hard to make contact with professors.

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Brainstorming: Why do so few senior engineering
students choose to do a research project?”
 I have to work part-time.
 Pay me and I’ll do research.
 I think research is boring.
 Lab space is hard to fi nd.
 Faculty just use undergraduates as a pair of hands.
 I don’t know any students doing research.
 I haven’t seen any notices about research opportunities.
 Will working in research help me get into grad school?
 I would do it if it was required.

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Affinity Diagram: Why do so few senior engineering
students choose to do a research project?”
 Time constraints
 Students are too busy.
 Students are interviewing for jobs.
 I have to work part-time.
 Faculty issues
 Professors don’t talk up research opportunities.
 The department does not encourage students to do research.
 It is hard to make contact with professors.
 Faculty just use undergraduates as a pair of hands.
 Lack of interest
 Students are thinking about getting a job.
 They are thinking about getting married.
 I’m not interested in research.
 I want to work in manufacturing.
 Pay me and I’ll do research.
 I think research is boring.
 I would do it if it was required.

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Affinity Diagram: Why do so few senior engineering
students choose to do a research project?”
 Lack of information
 They don’t know how to select a research topic.
I don’t know what research the professors are interested in.
 I’m not sure what research entails.
 I don’t know any students doing research.
I haven’t seen any notices about research opportunities.
 Will working in research help me get into graduate school?
 Other
 Lab space is hard to find.

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List Reduction:Multivoting

 Each team member received 10 votes that they could distribute any
way they wished among the seven issues.

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List Reduction:Multivoting

 favored (3)
 intermediate in importance(2)
 Lowest in importance(1)

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Revised Problem Statement

Problem Statement : A group of engineering honors students was concerned that more
engineering seniors were not availing themselves of the opportunity to do a senior research
project. All engineering departments listed this as a course option, but only about 5 percent of
the students chose this option. To properly define the problem, the team brainstormed about
the question,

“Why do so few senior engineering students choose to do a research

project?”

Revised Problem Statement:

 The lack of information among undergraduate engineering students
about what it means to do research, including the lack of information
on specific research opportunities with faculty, is responsible for the
low participation of students in elective research courses.

 A larger database was needed as they went into the cause

finding stage of problem solving.

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Effective Strategy for Problem Solving
 Problem Definition

 Cause Finding

 Solution Finding and Implementation

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Survey
 One hundred surveys were distributed to senior engineering
students.

 The questions were based on the A to G issues listed previously,

with issue D omitted.

 The students were asked to rank the importance of each issue

on a 1–7 Likert scale, and they were asked whether they were
interested doing a research project.

 Of the 75 surveys received from undergraduate students, a

surprising 93 percent said they were interested in doing a
research project, while 79 percent felt there was a lack of
undergraduate involvement in research.

 A very similar survey was given to faculty.

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Pareto Chart

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Cause-and-Effect Diagram
(Fish-Bone Diagram)

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Why-Why Diagram

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Interrelationship Digraph

 The root causes are the overloaded students and curriculum, and the
fact that the faculty perceive that there is a low undergraduate student
interest in doing research.
 The key input is that the faculty do not perceive a need to supply
information on research to the undergraduates.
 Solutions to the problem should then focus on ways of reducing
student overload and developing a better understanding of the student
interest in doing research.
 It was decided that reducing student overload had to precede any
efforts to change faculty minds that students are not interested in
doing research.

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Interrelationship Digraph

If the causal relationship is stronger from B to A, then we draw an arrow

in that direction.

D results in E
D:cause, E:effect, outcome or result
The most outgoing arrows will be root causes
The most incoming arrows will be key effects, outcomes or results
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Effective Strategy for Problem Solving
 Problem Definition

 Cause Finding

 Solution Finding and Implementation

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How-how Diagram

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Implementation Plan

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 4.8 Planning and Scheduling

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Planning and Scheduling
 Planning:
 Consists of identifying the key activities in a project and
ordering them in the sequence in which they should be
performed.

 Scheduling:
 Consists of putting the plan into the time frame of the calendar.

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Four Major Decisions
 Performance:
 The design must possess an acceptable level of operational
capability or the resources expended on it will be wasted.
 Time:
 In the early phases of a project the emphasis is on accurately
estimating the length of time required to accomplish the various
tasks and scheduling to ensure that sufficient time is available to
complete those tasks.
 Cost:
 The importance of cost in determining what is feasible in an
engineering design has been emphasize in earlier chapters.
 Risk:
 Risks are inherent in anything new.

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Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a tool used to divide a
project into manageable segments to ensure that the
complete scope of work is understood.
 The WBS lists the tasks that need to be done.
 The tasks are expresses as outcomes (deliverables) instead
of planned actions.
 Outcomes are used instead of actions because they are
easier to predict accurately at the beginning of a project.
 Example of WBS can bee seen in Table 4.4

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Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

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Gantt Chart
This Gantt chart is made for the first three phases of the work breakdown structure
mentioned in Table 4.4.

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Example 4.2: Installing a prototype of a new
design of heat transfer tubes
 The Project Objective of a development team is to install a
prototype of a new design of heat transfer tubes in an existing
shell and determine the performance of the new tube bundle
design.

 Note that the process proceeds along two paths:

1) Remove the internals from the shell and install the new tubes
2) Install the wiring and instrumentation

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Gantt Chart
 Gantt chart for prototype testing a heat exchanger:

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