Our client, a Euro 5 billion division of a major European corporation, is a manufacturer of state-of-the-art electronic ABS braking and vehicle control systems.
Prior to engaging Thomas Group, the company’s engineering lead-time was increasing, competition was threatening to take market share, and engineering costs were rising faster than revenue.
Critical issues included:
Thomas Group was engaged in a company-wide program; the key objectives of which were to:
Establishing a permanent Time-to-market (TTM) process was driven by Thomas Group’s rigorous Total Cycle Time® (TCT®) methodology.
The first step was to conduct an in-depth analysis and to create an architecture that would be used to guide the program. Client training was followed by establishing a top management business improvement teamthat directed program actions and granted empowerment.
A cross functional team, led by the client and facilitated by Thomas Group Resultants®, was formed to drive creation of the TTM process and to establish project management discipline through the use of work packages. The team mappedthe processes and identified high-leverage process improvement barriers. Fast action barrier removal teamswere formed torapidly eliminate these problems and remove associated substitute processes.
Key barriers included:
Developing a work package library and structure enabled the company to plan resources, schedule completion of work across projects, meet deadlines, establish cost parameters, accelerate project completion, and improve first pass yield.
Implementing a formal project management process around an SAP project management tool led to an ability to create work breakdown structures to support projects. It also provided the ability to establish and perform formal periodic project reviews, focus on project solving, accelerate project completion, and assign skills where needed.
Forming joint customer and engineering product teams resulted in greater clarity in initial specifications, a reduction and control of running changes and faster response to requests for quotation. Establishing formal starts control benefited the organization in terms of focusing resources by project priority, prioritization of down-stream activities and higher productivity.