Volvo tried in the 1960s, and quality skyrocketed, according to then-president pehr gyllenhammar (who retired in the 1990s). this approach dramatically boosted quality (and often raised productivity as well) by pushing power down, replacing inspection with responsibility, and having people work in teams. volvo found that production under teams stayed constant, largely due to systems constraints, but that the time and capital invested to make the switch was more than paid off in cost savings from reduced turnover and absenteeism.