SDWT stands for Self Directed Work Team. It is a philosophy, process and system which promises employee empowerment, discretionary effort and team spirit at the workplace. It is also known as HPWS - High Performance Work System.

SDWT is a group of employees who manage their day-to-day responsibility by themselves with a minimum of supervision. Members of a self-directed work team typically handle job assignments, plan and schedule work, make production and/or service related decisions, and take action on problems.

SDWT brings a high involvement and participative system of accomplishing work in which all employees have developed the capability to connect with and drive the quality of business results to be world-class.

The SDWT culture has the following characteristics:

• A learning culture
• Facilitates the identification of competencies of people on a continuous basis
• Brings out the hidden potential and new talents of people
• Has a built-in motivational value – self-sustaining motivation
• Enables individuals to take initiative and to experiment
• Brings joy and satisfaction in work
• Enhances the creativity and problem-solving capabilities of people
• Creates team spirit and morale
• Enhances the action orientation of individuals and teams

KOBELCO PRECISION TECHNOLOGY SDN BHD ("KPTec") strongly believes in creating a competitive advantage through people and empowerment and team-work are two key success factors. It is important that employees in various functions and at different levels be aligned to work together towards common goals and be able to freely partake in team activities.

To empower employees to take ownership and be accountable for performance, both team and organization performance, KPTec has adapted an SDWT model which is depicted by the diagram below:

In this model, employees working in teams are allowed to participate in the daily running of the operation, for example:

• They are empowered to share various management and leadership functions (Team Captains and Starcaps)
• They often create their own schedules and review their performance as a group
• They are frequently responsible for acquiring any new training they might need
• They take responsibility for disciplining their own members
• They – not others outside the team – take responsibility for the quality of their products or services

• Connected to a common purpose
• Have their responsibilities clearly defined
• Improved productivity and quality
• Perform jobs with specific focus on speed, quantity and cost and be accountable for results
• Be empowered to fulfill each one’s responsibilities
• Know the standards and be encouraged to achieve excellence
• Receive and give feedback openly
• Respect each other
• Gain job satisfaction

• Ownership and accountability
• Self Management in the following focus areas:
• Quality
• Productivity
• Safety
• Maintenance activities
• Multi-skilled and disciplined teams
• Highly empowered teams
• Teams hiring and evaluating their own team members' performance