Posts Tagged ‘manufacturing’

“Give me a faster horse”

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

modelTHenry Ford once commented that if he’d asked his customers what they wanted they would have replied “Give me a faster horse”.

Sometimes in New Product Development we have to take a Quantum leap in imagination so that we can develop products which no one else has imagined.

“Brainstorming” is one techniques to help that process:-

1) Form a team of maximum 10 people drawn from all levels of the organization.

2) The “Chairperson” should be mid level with no obvious authority.

3) Provide some drinks and snacks to create a relaxed atmosphere.

4) Go round the table asking each one in turn what products they think the Company should be developing.

5) Don’t reject anything at this stage.

6) Don’t criticize anyone else’s contribution.

7) Get someone to list all the contributions on a whiteboard.

8 ) When all contributions are exhausted arrange them into different categories.

9) Vote on the top 5.

In the next post we will explore how to take these ideas forward.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk.
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Failure breeds success………

Saturday, June 26th, 2010

Most would agree that Apple is one of the most innovative and successful companies involved in new product development. However even they have had their fair share of Bloopers, so lets take a look at some of them:-

MacTV The Mac TV was released in 1993 and was Apple’s first attempt to integrate the functionality of a P.C with a cable ready T.V. Unforthunately it’s slow bus speed  of 16 MHz made for a slow P.C compared to it’s rivals and a very expensive T.V at over $2000. Needless to say it flopped and only 10k were produced.

macintosh_portableApple’s first attempt at a portable computer was the Macintosh portable. Released in 1989 it was way ahead of its time, and so it should have been at a whopping $6500.  It weighed in at a hefty 7.2kg and had an active matrix LCD screen which was fantastic but the major contributor to its cost.

apple_pipinIn 1995 Apple licensed its PIPPIN technology to Bandai to make a PC based game consol. The only problem was the competition, SEGA, SONY, Nintendo and PC based systems were already dominating the market. Only 42,000 PIPPIN units sold and it was withdrawn from the market.

O.K, you get the picture. Even the most innovative companies have their fair share of commercial failures. Typically this may run as high as 8 failures for every 2 successes, following the well known Pareto rule.

Less successful companies will have an even higher failure rate and in many cases this will lead to their ultimate demise.

So how should an organization skew the playing field to ensure a higher success rate ?

That will be the subject of the next post.

Until then, just remember, failure breeds success.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

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New Product Development….

Friday, April 30th, 2010

productLifecycleis vital to maintain a companies revenue growth. All products have a similar lifecycle which ends with declining revenue although the timescale between introduction and extinction may be anywhere between a few weeks to decades.

Unless New Product Development brings a steady stream of products to market the companies revenue will gradually decline.

Of course it is vital that the products being developed have a clearly defined market otherwise the costs of development will outweigh any increase in revenue.

Being in touch with the customers needs is the only way to increase the rate of success.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

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Why time to market is critical…

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

Are your products taking to long to develop and adversely affecting your revenue stream ? Time to Market  is absolutely critical in determining product revenue and payback. With product lifecycles becoming ever shorter as new, better, faster models are introduced the development timescale is critical to success. Every day lost in development is a day lost in sales. This is because the overall lifecycle of the product is reduced the longer the development takes.

This may, at first, seem counterintuitive as the product is deemed to have, say, a 12 month sales life following release to the market but this takes no account of the competition which may already have a better model in development. Consequently each day of lost sales is gone forever and never recovered.

If you want to stay ahead of the competition and maximize payback for your developments you need to minimize product development timescales.

No one should pretend that this is easy. There is a fine balance to be struck between developing a quality product which meets the customers requirements as well as any in-house and external Quality approvals. The product development process needs to be robust and well defined.

Your in-house development process will probably be similar to the typical ISO9001 process below.

ISO9001designprocess

Sometimes the only way to generate time to market reduction is to have a look at the process with a fresh “set of eyes”

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk


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The Brain Machine….

Friday, March 12th, 2010

brainmachineThere has been lots of recent talk from politicians, particularly The Conservative Party, about rejuvinating British Industry. Indeed James Dyson, the renowned inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner which bears his name, recently issued his  Ingenious Britain  report on the subject.

Such debate is welcome and well overdue. With manufacturing in the U.K shrinking to around 10% of GDP we urgently need a strategy which focuses on what we do best – Innovation.

There is no way we can compete with Far East manufacturers on cost (labor or Capital) but we can and do compete strongly when it comes to Innovative design and technology. This is partly due to our strong engineering history and professional project management skills. It is also down to our open and democratic culture which leads to a rigorous debate of ideas.

We have a wealth of scientific and engineering talent in the U.K which we can exploit to deliver new and innovative products to the worlds markets.

We need to rev up the Brain Machine.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

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Outsourcing at any cost ?…..

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

In July 2009 Sun Danyong comitted suicide by throwing himself from his 12th flloor apartment. Sun’s apartment had been ransacked and he claimed in a text, immediately before his death, that he had been badly beaten.

Sun worked for the massive Taiwanese CEM Foxconn (Turnover |$10 billion) which manufactures Apples iconic iphone. He was rumoured to have been suspected in the theft of an iphone prototype. The incident sparked an Audit by Apple but to date no visible action has been taken.

iphoneThis incident highlights the ethical dilemmas posed in Subcontracting. How do we deal with massive corporations which often dwarf our own ?  How do we balance the need to reduce manufacturing cost with the need to deal with undemocratic regimes with questionable human rights records ?

Do we do business at any price ?

Like most dilemmas the answer lies with the consumer. Western consumers are increasingly conscious of the ethical and environmental impact of their actions, where does that food come from, what is involved in it’s manufacture ? Who benefits and who gets hurt ?

This conciousness will extend to all areas of consumption including electronic products and it is those companies which pursue an active, ethical and evironmental policy which will ultimately benefit.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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The car in front is…..$%#*$ !!!

Monday, February 8th, 2010

priusThe news today that Toyota plans on recalling several hundred Prius due to brake problems follows hot on the heels of rumours last week that 19 people had died due to faulty accellerator pedals on Toyota vehicles in the U.S.A alone.

What is going on ?  Toyota has always had a terrific and well deserved reputation for product quality and anyone involved in product design knows that quality has to be built in at the design stage where the product should be rigorously tested and key parameter should exceed a certain capability. This approach guarantees a high degree of reliability and integrity with product failures measured in a handful per million.

The enormity of the problems at Toyota indicate a much, much higher level of failure which is incompatible with a quality product.

Toyota are already discovering the high price of possible shoddy design procedures with sales down around 16% last month.

Sadly their reputation may never recover.

Quality is built in at the design stage.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Hold on tiiiiiigggghhhhhhtttttttt !!!!!

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

roller-coasterThis week has seen some massive turbulence on International stock markets amid concerns over Greece, Spain and Portugal’s ability to pay back debt. The Euro has slumpled significantly against the dollar and the FTSE is down around 7% from its post crash high.

Recent figures indicating that Insolvencies in the U.K were at an all time high in 2009 illustrating the depth of the recession.

So what to do if your company is feeling the pinch ?  Here are some suggestions:-

1) If you need extra resource consider hiring interims. Interims generally cost more on a daily basis but the savings in long term commitment can be significant – no severance pay, no holiday pay, no pension contributions, no Employer National Insurance contributions, Interim or Contractors can be a great way of adding additional resource over a shorter time span.

2) If you haven’t done so already why not consider outsourcing some of your key activities, the savings can be enormous but be careful, seek professional outsourcing advice first.

3) If you have already outsourced key activities, review your strategy. It may be cheaper to bring some activities home and INSOURCE. You may think this contradicts point 2 but NOTHING is set in stone.

4) Get your processes reviewed by a “fresh pair of eyes”. The fees you pay a Professional Consultant to review your processes will be worth every penny.

In a competitive eco-sphere those most able to adapt SURVIVE and those who survive will THRIVE.

Chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

The act of innovating; introduction of new things or methods.

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

manuprocessRecent statistics show that manufacturing in the UK is now as low as 11% of GDP and employment in manufacturing has fallen by a massive 9% since Sept 2008.

Staggering figures – so what’s the solution, if in fact one is needed.

As manufacturing jobs are generally well paid compared to the rest of the economy and as each manufacturing role supports a number of others in the supply chain it would seem logical that an increase in the number of manufacturing jobs will lead to a more diversified and robust economy.

So, how do we go about generating more manufacturing jobs. Do we introduce tariffs on Chinese goods ?  Impose extra duties on imports ? – we could do this but in the end we may do more damage to British business than good.

Many companies have survived by outsourcing activities to China, the Far East and elsewhere and whereas some would argue this has cost British jobs the counter argument is, that without outsourcing, these companies would have gone bust and cost even more jobs.

Capitalism is a dynamic competitive environment and, like its biological counterpart, the most able to adapt will survive.

Wherever a company or organization exists, in order to compete, survive and thrive it needs to Innovate.

It needs to develop new products and services and bring them to market.

In the current climate this is even more critical.

Innovation enables the most able to adapt to survive.

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Now we’re Insourcing……………………

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

reengineeringFriday’s News that Automotive component supplier Bosch is closing its plant in South Wales and moving manufacturing to Hungary was grim news for employees.

However, this action is actually bucking the latest trend.

A recent survey by manufacturing group EEF revealed that one in seven companies had moved manufacturing back to the U.K in the last 2 years.

Nearly seven in ten agreed that the U.K was now a competitive place for manufacturing.

The falling price of sterling, increased cost of freight, repeated quality concerns and time to market issues have combined to make the U.K increasingly attractive.

The biggest issue is in obtaining personnel with the knowledge and skills required to establish successful manufacturing lines.

This is being addressed by hiring interims with the experience to deliver results by ‘hitting the ground running’

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk