Forming teams: an analytical approach

The selection of multi-functional teams is a key issue in problem solving. Currently there are no papers in the literature that discuss analytical approaches to forming teams. Furthermore, no comprehensive model exists to prioritize team membership based on customer requirements or product characteristics. To deal with the underlying complexities of the team selection process, a methodology for team formation is developed. The methodology is based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach and the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method. A QFD planning matrix is used to organize the factors considered in the team selection. The importance measure for each team member is determined with the AHP approach. A mathematical programming model is developed to determine the composition of a team. The methodology developed in this paper is tested by the selection of teams in concurrent engineering. A detailed discussion of the model implementation and how to reduce the number of comparisons in the AHP process is presented. Possible modifications of the model to include 'soft factors', i.e., leadership, morale, personalities of group members, group values and so on are also discussed.