RL Wolfe Self Directed Teams

Introduction:
RL Wolfe is a $350M private plastic pipe manufacturer headquarters in Houston, Texas. In 2003
RL Wolfe purchased Moon Plastics in Corpus Christi and wanted to improve this facility
productivity and quality more than three times the industry average by implementing selfdirected teams at this new plant (Garvin & Collins, 2009).
Background:
Moon Plastics is a 300,000 square-foot facility that requires 27 floor workers to run four
extrusion lines 24 hours a day over three shifts and they were to focus on bringing raw materials
to the hoppers, running the lines, and transporting pipe away from the finish lines (Garvin &
Collins, 2009).
Problem:
Moon Plastics lost employees because they refused to participate in the SDT process while
others used autonomy to do what they wanted to do and misunderstood the concept of employee
empowerment (Garvin& Collins, 2009).
Opportunities:
Instead of 100% of the decisions being made by the coordinators 80% of the decisions about the
factory floor work would be made by the SDTs. The workers would know more than the
coordinators about plastic extrusion and the workers would become the experts and would be
accountable to each other (Garvin & Collins, 2009).
Recommendations:
Leadership transitioning should be asserted to allow SDTs to have more control and autonomy
as a team (Wellins, 1992).
Managers should teach, coach, develop, and facilitate rather than direct and control (Williams,
1995).
Conclusion:
Continuing to implement STDs at Moon Plastics would help reduce barriers among departments
and improve manager/employee participation and investment.
References:
Garvin, D. A., & Collins, E. (2009, December).RL Wolfe: Implementing Self-Directed Teams.
Boston, MA; Harvard Business School.

Wellins, R. (1992, December). Building a Self-Directed Work Team. Training and Development,
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Williams, R., (1995, November). Self-Directed WorkTeams: A Competitive Advantage. Quality
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