Steering Team

It is in this context, that in 2009, the DART committee formed a Steering Team to work on a project titled Consensus List of Developmental Toxicants. The Steering Team published a report of their deliberations and defined developmental toxicant in terms of its concentration in vitro (27). Daston et al. (27) based the definitions of positive and negative developmental toxicants according to their exposure conditions. That is, compounds on the list could have an exposure concentration that is unequivocally positive and a concentration that is unequivocally negative. In addition, only permanent effects that alter fetal organization, particularly structural malformations, were considered developmental toxicity. For example, fetal weight decreases (which are commonly used endpoints in risk assessment) are not considered developmental toxicity for the purposes of this list. 

A multi-functional Global Reactive Chemicals Steering Team identified three key principles to guide our overall reactive chemicals effort. They are ... 

California Luel Cell Partnership Steering Team -Diamond Bar, CA, October 2001... 

J. Solomon, Steering Team Chair, Chemical Industry Roadmap for Nanomaterials by Design from Fundamentals to Function in Chemical Industry Vision 2020,2003, p 25... 

Safety contact subteam Designate or select a safety contact from each department or work cell. They can function as a subteam of the steering team. Their activities could include departmental safety audits and safety communication. Figure 9.1 gives you a broader overview of a safety contact s possible contributions. This is yet another way... 

Select a project team or steering team to implement and run the system. 

Directs the steering team where to focus its efforts for maximum impact... 

To make sure that there is good employee participation (refer to Chapter 7), it is important that you select a cross-functional steering team that can run the process. The idea behind appointing this type of team is that it allows the distribution of work associated with the survey planning, administration, and analysis of results. In addition, the team can be used to promote a more efficient process and make sure that a variety of perspectives and opinions are considered along the way. The team members help to add credibility to the process. 

The steering team should develop a schedule of dates, times, locations, meeting areas, and the number of employees to be surveyed. 

Its counterpart was the Strength Steering Team (SST). Their role was to define the coalition objectives and develop a model for funding the research roadmap developed by the CRT. The team is comprised of members of the specialty, fiber and container-making interests. It has talked with several flat glass companies and believes there they will be more interested when the final membership documents and roadmap are ready. 

Steering Team, Project Team and Task Teams... 

The information from this scan was for the facilitator s eyes only, and the purpose of the scan was to identify the key areas of concern as well as the key players in the process. The actual focus of the Lean effort had to be determined by the steering team, not the facilitator. However, by using the information gained in the scan, the facilitator was now ready to create the steering team that would be focused specifically on the mission of the Lean effort. The facilitator now knew all areas of the organization, all customers, all suppliers, and any other stakeholders that need to be invited on to the team. 

Lead managers from each of these organizations were identified, and they were invited to be part of the first article Lean steering team. All of the managers readily accepted the invitation because of their direct involvement or direct needs when related to this process. In all, the steering team included 14 individuals, some of whom had to travel across the United States in order to participate in the process. 

Once the steering team has been identified and invited, some of the acceptance tools discussed in the next chapter are needed. These tools are used to evaluate the change readiness and the team dynamics of the steering team. All this is done before the steering team meets, so that the facilitator can be prepared for the team dynamics that he or she will be encountering. 

A change readiness survey to see how willing and open each of the steering team members were to changes in the first article process... 

Once the steering team is in place and trained, they are now tasked with looking closely at the process or system under study. They discuss the issues of this structure, in an attempt not to find solutions, but to identify specific areas that should be addressed by Lean activities. These activities are targeted with specific charters and are referred to as events. ... 

Chart 6.5 also shows how the steering team identifies Lean leaders who will be the champions of the Lean process in their respective areas. These individuals will identify and create Resource Support Teams (RST) that can collect information and access information to support the lean effort. The RST, in conjunction with the steering team, will then identify the team members that are necessary to make each event as effective as possible. 

At Z, the steering team was extremely receptive to the training and the entire change process. The Lean leaders were quickly identified, and their access to resources would be utilized throughout the Lean process. Over time the steering team came up with the following specific events that needed to be addressed ... 

The steering team at Z met together every two weeks for about one hour. They were updated on the events that had already occurred or were in process, and they facilitated the planning of future events. They became a critical tool in identifying resources that needed to be tapped so that the Lean activities did not stall out. 

After the technical assessment, the findings are presented to the steering team, and based on these findings they determine what events should be scheduled next. Then it again becomes the facilitator s task to organize, evaluate, and train the next event team so that they can move the Lean process forward. Each event creates an action item list that is referred to as a Lean newspaper this action item list is then moved forward until each action item is resolved. 

At this point, the facilitator should be ready for team development, starting with the establishment of the steering team. From the scan the facilitator should now have a feeling for what types of individuals are needed on the steering... 

Z Base used the Myers Briggs Indicators to check on the balance of the team and to validate anticipated team performance (see Chart 7.2). They learned that the steering team (ST) was reasonably balanced with IS, IN, and EN team members, but it had more thinkers than doers. However, for the Implementation Team (IT), a group that would become the core team for all the events, they discovered a serious problem. The team was heavily skewed toward introverts, especially ISTJs. This was a strong indicator that the team... 

Perform a cultural assessment of the steering team and of the organization that is being transformed. 

Meet with the steering team and start the technical assessment process (which is continued in the next chapter). 

Once the product or process has been selected, the team needs to bring in the resident gurus on that item. The team also needs a facilitator who is often referred to as the Value Stream Focal. This individual makes sure that the VSM process stays on track, and he or she reports the progress of the VSM team to the steering team. The facilitator is the lead in the VSM discussion and implementation efforts. This individual becomes the scheduler, negotiator, and arranger, making sure the VSM team has the resources they need in order to stay on track. 

We use these priorities to rank each of the change items. Then we use this ranking to identify Lean events around each of these areas of change. These recommendations are brought before the steering team for their approval or modification, and the facilitator moves forward with the planning process for the first event. 

An improvement event goes through a process that is very similar to the organizing of any team activity. First the team is selected based on the recommendations of the steering team. The team receives a cultural assessment using the tools of Chapter 7. Then, with an appropriate team structure in place, the team meets for the first time where they... 

Receive direction by having the steering team come to the kickoff of the event and describing their goals and vision for the event. 

On the last day of the first week, the event team reports their progress to the steering team. It is important for the steering team to stay in the loop regarding... 

Z Base performed a VSM and then theorized a FS-VSM. From these they identified some major areas of improvements and made a recommendation for future events to the steering team. Then they proceeded to schedule events in ... 

---