For one Connecticut manufacturer of close-tolerance, precision metal parts, a nearly 20-year commitment to lean manufacturing has naturally evolved into using self-directed work teams for the past two years to set the ambitious objectives of 100-percent on-time delivery and 100-percent quality.

With the help of a committed management team, a zealous companywide self-directed work team champion, dedicated team leaders and cheerleaders, and most important, participation of everyone on the shop floor, Farmington-based Connecticut Spring & Stamping (CSS) is well on its way to meeting these goals, just two years after launching the initiative. They’ve used several tools to get them to their objectives, including following steps laid out in what some consider the self-directed work team “Bible,” establishing an achievable, yet challenging reward system, and instituting a new way of visualizing work that synchronizes front-end scheduling with actual shop floor execution.

What began as an experiment with one pilot work team has now been expanded to 21 teams that include both shop-floor and office processes.

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