Case Study
Last week, I involved in a complicated issue which is all the materials of the final product were ready at the kit factory, but the packaging production could not be started due to the production related data have not been provided.
All the project supply roles, supply planner, launch manager, DMG and CMO, were involved in the loop, however, the result is that the master data that the production needed has not been provided up to date. The root cause is that no process is setup in this data release to the factory, and that anyone in this group has to coordinate with others a lot previously to get the data he needs. And this time, this process became disorder due to the time pressure. For instance, A needs input from B and C, while C needs the output of C and A, all the roles are in mutual status.
The solution for this disorder is to ask all the roles in this even to sit together to work out a process that is information delivery oriented. The intermediate output should be:
a) Identify the input and output of all the roles.
b) Split the loop in the process to sequence activities.
c) Define the template of the outputs.
d) Endorsed by all the roles.
The ideas in the corporate process setup
In this case, we can see the long way of the process establishment in the company to support the organization operation and the efficiency of the product development process. Different issues maybe occur in the operations or in the reorganization in the company. However, when define and establish the process in the company, we have to keep the agility of the process but not lose its efficiency. Some ideas should be followed to keep the process better.
a) The purpose of the process is to help the corporate to deposit the intellectual assets, such as the measurement data, the
b) Process is the way that all the members follow to improve the working efficiency or save money, so the process should not be complicated.
c) The way to keep the process live is to keep maintaining so that the process can support the business in a healthy way.
d) Process can standardize the activities.
e) A third organization of the company can monitor and evaluate the execution of the process.
f) The management team should support the standardization the process implementation.
Initialize the process
Activities and deliverables oriented process to support the organization operation are the better and easier way to get it an enabler.
a) Identify the visions of the company.
b) Confirm the goals that can boost the business of the company.
c) Identify the business value area of the corporate operation, such as, the marketing insight, the product define, the product development, the order fulfillment, etc…
d) Identify the activities and roles in the specified area.
e) Define the input and output of each activity
f) Define the information flow format
g) Define the quality control key point and measurement parameters.
Improve process efficiency
The corporate should invest some money to get an IT platform, IBM lotus notes, for example, to support the process be executed in an efficient way.
Anyone in the team should just focus on the job on hand, rather than waiting for the blurred information.
The process setup is really so big area in the company that I cannot illustrate here in a very detailed way, although I have some little thinking in it. Moreover, I think we can have further communication in this field in future.