The company supports the team by its organizational structure, information system, compensation policy and management. This approach has the highest risk of failure. Let's say that a particular supervisor retires, and the company can't find an immediate replacement. When this happens, team members have told me they feel abandoned, alone, and confused. They do not receive the training, emotional support, or organizational restructuring needed to implement management's directives.
Some companies partially implement the concept.
They may take an existing manufacturing team, given them some training, transfer whatever little control the supervisor has to the team, and change their supervisor to a facilitator. When the person that championed their cause leaves or gets promoted, the effort may collapse within a year. A number of aerospace companies have used this approach. Using this idea, management and their consultant decide on the broad outline of the plan that moves the company towards self-direction. They then form a design team from a cross-section of employees, whose purpose is to develop a detailed plan for implementation, change, and communication.