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End-to-End Product Development And 4 Reasons You May Want It

January 24 2012  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Product Development, Program Management  |  1 Comment

Leardon Product DevelopmentAt Leardon Solutions we specialize in end-to-end product development and we’re often asked why the end-to-end product development solution is ideal for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Below are 4 reasons why you and your organization may consider end-to end-product development. It could save you a significant amount of time an money.

In the product development world where service providers are specialized and fragmented, entrepreneurs and the like will often find it necessary to play the role of Product Development Manager and integrate all aspects of the product development life cycle. Who else is going to pull all of this together if it is difficult to find a service provider that can provide an end-to-end product development solution, fulfilling all the needs of the company from the product idea all the way through manufacturing? In fact, there are service providers that can provide an end-to-end solution to micro-enterprises, thereby providing a more effective solution than one where the entrepreneur plays program manager. Below are four reasons why it is best for entrepreneurs and small/medium enterprises to work with a team that is capable of developing your product from beginning to end.

A “big picture” perspective
There are many tradeoffs and compromises that must be made during product development as it isn’t always possible to meet each and every product objectives. One of the first tasks that a program manager performs when starting a project is to prioritize the program objectives. This involves determining if product features, product schedule, or product cost has higher priority. This prioritization gives the product development team a “big picture” perspective which allows them to optimize the complete program rather than just optimizing certain aspects of the project.

The product development process is like a balloon. When the balloon is pressed down in one place, it bulges in another place since there is a set volume of air in the balloon. The constraints and objectives of product development are similar to the volume of air in the balloon. For example, part cost can be lowered by investing in high-volume production tooling. This tooling is expensive but necessary if a low part cost is required. Pushing in one area (lower part costs) causes bulging in another area (higher tooling cost). In product development, it is important to see the big picture by understanding how the product objectives are affected by the constraints of the program. An end-to-end service provider who understands that ownership is required across all phases of the project will provide the big picture perspective and optimize the complete program rather than optimizing specific parts of the program.

Nothing “falls through the cracks”
Typically, service providers specialize in some aspect of the product development life cycle. This could be mechanical design, prototype fabrication, injection molding tools, or production parts. This service provider specialization creates a fragmented industry that doesn’t satisfy the needs of micro-enterprises. Therefore, it is helpful to have a program manager on the team who not only understands the product development life cycle but also knows how to direct and manage the service providers. When somebody who hasn’t worked completely through the product development life cycle manages a project, it is very likely that some deliverables will be forgotten or overlooked which will make program continuity difficult.

When deliverables and program objectives end up “falling through the cracks”, the team becomes inefficient, wasting time and money. Avoid this by either hiring an experienced product development program manager to integrate the fragmented service providers or hiring a service provider who can seamlessly use their team from the start of the program through the end to fulfill all the needs.

“Built in” accountability
Accountability diminishes as more service providers are added to work on a project. Here is a very common example. A product designer from one company might be hired to design a part that will be handed off to another company who will fabricate the part. The outcome is typically a less than optimal design since designers and fabricators typically have conflicting goals and objectives. This scenario usually results in multiple redesigns and requires more time and money than necessary to complete the task.

The idea of using many different service providers on a program could result in wasted time and money. A more efficient team is one where one service provider is accountable for the product, from the idea all the way through production. In the above example, if the designer and the fabricator worked for the same service provider, a discussion on tooling and fabrication would take place at the start and during the design of the part.

Lower overall cost
Product development efficiency results in faster time to market and lower overall cost. This in return leads to profit which can be reinvested for new products or product improvements. If external service providers are being used for product development, an end-to-end service provider will result in the most efficient and effective solution.

Images courtesy of:

Equus Athletics

Bomber

Ecoleeser

Need more information? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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How To: Successful Product Change – 3 Tips for Product Change Management

December 6 2011  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Product Design, Product Development, Program Management  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentChange is sometimes the enemy of an efficient and cost effective product development process. While change is inevitable and necessary at times, minimizing unnecessary product change is important to keep the project on schedule and within budget while continuing to meet all the product specifications. There are three true and tried methods that, if implemented in a product development process, will result in a highly effective product change management process.

Communicate the Program Objectives to the Team

Product development can be summarized as a balancing act between the competing constraints of product cost, scope, and schedule. Thousands of decisions are made while a product is under development and the end result is typically a sub-optimal result of these decisions. Since optimization is impossible, it is necessary to prioritize the objectives of the project in order to ensure success. Without prioritization, the individuals working on programs will be pulled in opposing directions and will be continually redirected during the project, resulting in failure. Proper prioritization of product cost, scope, and schedule will result in successful change management.

The three objectives of a program are product cost, product scope, and program schedule.

Product Cost refers to the many financial metrics, including total budget, cost of goods sold, gross margins, or any other financial metrics used on the project.

Product Scope refers to the product features that will be designed into in the final product.

Program Schedule refers to the amount of time available to complete the project.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to change one of these objectives without affecting the others. The cost, scope, and schedule each act as constraints and therefore movement of one affects the others. Hence, to properly communicate the program objectives, a product development team should:

  1. Determine which of the three program objectives is the most important. This chosen objective will be the first program priority that must be constrained and cannot change under any circumstance.
  2. Choose one of the two remaining program objectives that can change but must be held within a range. The second priority should be thought of as an objective that can be modified but should always be kept as close to the goal as possible.
  3. The outcome of the last program objectives will be accepted as is.

Some hard tradeoffs need to be made when prioritizing the program cost, scope, and schedule. By performing this exercise and communicating the priorities, the product development team will be given very clear objectives that allow the members to make their own decisions on the necessity of change knowing the overall program priorities.

The management of these three constraints is sometimes referred to as the project management triangle.

Two of three input factors must be prioritized


The video was produced by J Scott Christianson at http://thefreerangetechnologist.com/ – He has a lot of great project management tips and information on his site.
Product Defects and Issues Drive Change

The product development team should work with the premise that product change is driven only by product defects and issues. The defects can be technical issues or issues raised by anybody on the cross-functional product development team. The technical issues found from the mechanical, electrical, software, firmware, manufacturing, or production teams are obviously product defects that need to be reviewed. Issues from other members of the cross-functional product development team such as marketing, sales, advertising, finance, or field sales need to be considered also. For example, if a new product was introduced in the market with very similar features to your team’s product, then it would be wise to raise a product issue to modify or improve some of the features to differentiate the product. If the product cost was too high and cost was a high priority for the program, it would be necessary to change the product design to minimize the cost. Defects and issues from all the cross-functional members of a product development team can influence change.

Defects and issues can be managed by a complex Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system or a simple spreadsheet. Either way, it is important to document the root cause of the defect, proposed solution of the defect, method of solution verification, and implementation of the solution for completeness and traceability of the defect.

Establish Change Rules

The final method of ensuring a successful product change management solution is to establish rules of changes. If and when a product change is made depends on both the severity of the defect as well as when the defect is found in the product development lifecycle. Product defect severity can be broken down into four categories:

  • Low: Very limited customer impact.
  • Medium: Moderate customer impact.
  • Serious: High customer impact.
  • Critical: Safety or regulatory issue.

The program manager of the product meets with the cross-functional product development team to review each documented issues and defects. As a team, they categorize the defects as either low, medium, serious, or critical. Once the defects are categorized, the team must decide if a change should be made to the product to resolve the issue. The team should have rules in place that determine when the changes should be made depending on where the product lies in the product development lifecycle. Here are some rules of thumb on approving and allowing product changes to take place:

  1. Critical defects should always drive an immediate change and the production line should be shut down if the product is in production.
  2. Serious defects should be fixed as soon as feasible and rolled into prototype testing or production.
  3. Medium severity defects should drive changes the early stages of the product development lifecycle but should not be resolved during production.
  4. Low severity defects should only be fixed in the early prototyping phases and should be ignored in all later stages of the lifecycle.

If the product development team has a rigorous defect review process and change rules, then only necessary changes will result from the product change management system.

Need more information on product change or product development in general? Please contact us with any questions or contact me directly at joseph.donoghue ( at ) leardon.com

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Creating and Maintaining Successful Supplier Relationships: Part 3

August 23 2011  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Supplier Management  |  2 Comments

In the last article on supplier management entitled Creating and Maintaining Successful Supplier Relationships: Part 2, it was shown that each of the Five Vital Characteristics of a Successful Supplier Relationship has a direct impact on the supplier commitment and capability. This article also described how the supplier manager should focus her efforts on implementing the improvement techniques for each characteristic, hence improving the commitment and capability of the supplier. In the end, this leads to an improved relationship.

The table below reiterates the Five Vital Characteristics of a Successful Supplier Relationship and the impact they have on commitment and capability. These characteristics were identified by the Leardon Solutions program managers after studying dozens of supplier relationships, both good and bad.

Leardon Solutions Five Vital Characteristics of a Suppiler Relationship

Five Vital Characteristics of a Committed and Capable Supplier Relationship

This concept of supplier relationship improvement can be communicated using a matrix of capability and commitment. The matrix graphic below shows the simple connection between commitment, capability, and supplier relationship success. There are four quadrants of the matrix and three states of the supplier relationship: Poor, Fair, and Good.

Leardon Solutions Supplier Relationship Management Model

  • POOR RELATIONSHIP: A Poor Relationship exists when the supplier does not commit to the relationship and is not a capable of performing the job at hand. In this case, the supplier must demonstrate some desire to increase their capabilities or their commitment, otherwise another supplier should be chosen. If the desire exists, the supplier manager should focus on using the improvement techniques for the vital characteristics.
  • FAIR RELATIONSHIP: A Fair Relationship exists when the supplier is either fully committed to the relationship or demonstrates good capabilities, but not both. It is possible for this type of relationship to be successful in the short term but typically the relationship will fall apart unless improvement is made. Again, this improvement will come through utilizing the improvement techniques for the vital characteristics.
  • GOOD RELATIONSHIP: A Good Relationship exists when the supplier exhibits full commitment to the relationship as well as demonstrates excellent capabilities. This is the pinnacle of supplier management and relationships in this quadrant are typically prepared for long-term success.

In the end, the objective is to improve the supplier capability and commitment by striving for improvement of the Five Vital Characteristics of a Successful Supplier Relationship: respect for individuals, partnership, growth and development, properly managed risk, and complementary capabilities. Implementation of these characteristics into the relationship by using the management improvement techniques will ensure an extremely productive relationship which will result in successful programs and projects.

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Creating and Maintaining Successful Supplier Relationships: Part 2

August 19 2011  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Supplier Management  |  4 Comments

The first posting on the topic of successful supplier management entitled Creating and Maintaining Successful Supplier Relationships: Part 1 pointed out that a successful supplier relationship consists of five vital characteristics which result from a relationship that encourages commitment and capability. These five characteristics are shown in the table below.

Leardon Solutions Successful Supplier Management Characteristics

These Five Vital Characteristics of a Successful Supplier Relationship were identified by the Leardon Solutions program managers after studying dozens of supplier relationships, both good and bad. To reiterate, the premise for these vital characteristics is that the supplier manager must influence the supplier to believe that the relationship is worth the time and that their team can do what the manager requires.[1] In other words, the supplier must be committed and capable and if a supplier manager can improve the commitment and capability of the supplier, the relationship will improve.

Each of these vital characteristics impacts the supplier commitment, capability, or both. In order to improve the supplier commitment, the supplier manager should work on improving the Respect for Individuals and the Partnership. If the supplier manager focuses on creating a relationship that has Properly Managed Risk and Complementary Capabilities, then the supplier capability will increase. Finally, improvement of the characteristic of Growth and Development will improve both the supplier commitment and capability. This is better described in the simple table below.

Leardon Solutions Capable and Committed Supplier Characteristics

Five Vital Characteristics of a Committed and Capable Supplier

So how does a supplier manager influence these five vital characteristics for improvement of supplier commitment and capability? Below is a list of the improvement techniques for each characteristic that, when implemented in the day-to-day supplier management, have been shown to establish a good supplier relationship.

Respect for Individuals

  1. Create an environment where everybody has the upmost respect for people and their opinions.
  2. Provide open and honest communications regarding performance of individuals (both good and bad).
  3. Create an environment where team members have genuine trust in each other.[2]

Partnership

  1. Allow an environment of open and honest communications about the state of the business relationship.
  2. Provide consistent, stable work that enables the supplier to invest and grow.
  3. Provide an environment where the teams engage in respectful debates about critical issues.[2]

Growth and Development

  1. Provide continual development of the supplier through an active development plan.
  2. Minimize the employee attrition rate by showing commitment to supplier’s growth and development.
  3. Develop a capable resource pool at the supplier through training.

Properly Managed Risk

  1. Both the supplier and supplier manager decide what risks to take and the implications of such risks.[2]
  2. Provide a team member training program to minimize mistakes and eliminate repeat mistakes.
  3. Provide a rewards and recognitions program that motivates innovation.

Complementary Capabilities

  1. Understand supplier employee capabilities and balance capabilities of integrated teams.
  2. Continually evaluate supplier employees and ask the supplier to improve underperforming employees.
  3. Focus the team individuals on using their capabilities to achieve team results.[2]

Influencing these five vital characteristics using the recommended management improvement techniques above improves the supplier commitment and capability which results in an improvement of the overall relationship. Remember that if the supplier thinks the relationship is valuable, they will remain committed. And if the supplier thinks they can do what is required, then they have the capability to excel and improve.

[1] Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, page 132, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler, and Ron McMillan, October 2007.

[2] The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, A Leadership Fable, Patrick Lencioni, Wiley, 2002.

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Creating and Maintaining Successful Supplier Relationships: Part 1

August 17 2011  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Supplier Management  |  4 Comments

External suppliers are critical to business success since companies focus their efforts on their core capabilities while outsourcing the non-core efforts. While suppliers and vendors exist to provide an assortment of different objects and items, the focus of this discussion is on suppliers of raw materials, parts, and products in a manufacturing supply chain.

If you have worked in the field of product development and manufacturing, you have probably worked with suppliers that you considered “good” and some that were considered “bad.” You have probably also heard the typical story about an inventor or entrepreneur who was successful selling product from an overseas supplier until one day the relationship soured and the individual’s company collapsed. Why are some supplier relationships considered successful and others considered failures? Why do perfectly good supplier relationships go bad? In order to answer these questions, we must first understand the vital characteristics of a successful supplier relationship.

The premise for creating and maintaining a successful supplier relationship is to understand how to get the necessary behaviors from the supplier.  The book Influencer: The Power to Change Anything[1] states that research has proven “People won’t attempt a behavior unless: (1) they think it’s worth it, and (2) they think they can do what’s required.  If not, why try?”  In other words, the relationship between the two parties must motivate the supplier to (1) show commitment and (2) display capability in order for the relationship to be successful.  Therefore, the efforts to develop and improve a relationship with a supplier should start with increasing their commitment and capability.

Engineers and program managers at Leardon Solutions have decades of experience working with world-class material, part, and product suppliers in long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.  Through these years, we have found that a successful supplier relationship consists five vital characteristics.

Leardon Solutions Successful Supplier Management Characteristics

These are vital characteristics that should be included in the supplier management philosophy.  By creating influence on each of these five vital characteristics, a supplier manager can increase the commitment and capability of the supplier, thereby creating and maintaining a successful supplier relationship.  In the next blog posting, Creating and Maintaining a Successful Supplier Relationship: Part 2, we will cover each of the Vital Characteristics in detail and describe the key aspects for achieving each characteristic.

[1]Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, page 132, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler, and Ron McMillan, October 2007.

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Product Cost, Scope, Schedule: Prioritize or Fail

August 4 2011  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Program Management  |  Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentProduct development and commercialization can be summarized as a balancing act between the competing constraints of product cost, scope, and schedule. Thousands of decisions are made while a product is under development and the end result is typically a sub-optimal result of these decisions. A consistent theme exists as a team moves through the process of bringing a product to the customer: it is virtually impossible to optimize all the requirements of the program/product.

Since optimization is impossible, it is necessary to prioritize the objectives of the project in order to ensure success. Without prioritization, the individuals working on programs will be pulled in opposing directions and will be continually redirected during the project, resulting in failure. Proper prioritization of product cost, scope, and schedule will result in success.

The three objectives of a program are product cost, product scope, and program schedule.

Product Cost refers to the many financial metrics, including total budget, cost of goods sold, gross margins, or any other financial metrics used on the project.

Product Scope refers to the product features that will be designed into in the final product.

Program Schedule refers to the amount of time available to complete the project.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to change one of these objectives without affecting the others. The cost, scope, and schedule each act as constraints and therefore movement of one affects the others. This is typically referred to as the project management triangle by program managers.

How do you manage a project knowing that everything cannot be optimized? The management team at Leardon Solutions has managed hundreds of programs using a simple method of prioritization which requires that the team takes away the constraints that will cause failure. This method requires thinking of the cost, scope, and schedule in terms of three levels of priority.

a) Determine which of the three program objectives is the most important. This chosen objective will be the first program priority that must be constrained and cannot change under any circumstance. For example, if the product being developed is for the snowboard market and must be available two months prior to the skiing season, the program schedule should be chosen as the highest priority. The team must make changes to the product scope or product cost in order to meet the program schedule.

b) Choose one of the two remaining program objectives that can change but must be held within a range. After the top program priority that cannot change under any circumstance is chosen, there are only two objectives left. The second priority should be thought of as an objective that can be modified but should always be kept as close to the goal as possible. In the snowboard example, program schedule is the top priority and everything else must adapt to meet the program schedule. If all similar products in this snowboard product category have a retail price around US$50, this product might also need to be close to this retail price. It might not be possible to hit this price exactly because of the rigid schedule constraint, but the product cost should be optimized by minimizing the product manufacturing cost or modifying the gross margins.

c) The outcome of the last program objectives will be accepted as is. Unfortunately, since the first program priority was constrained and the second program priority was optimized, there is no ability to control the third program priority. The program manager must accept whatever results from the actions of constraining and optimizing. For the snowboard product example, the product scope is considered the third program priority. The product designer might have wanted to include a small injection molded plastic toe bumper on the front of the product to improve the looks of the product and prevent wear of the toe. But due to the schedule constraint (injection molding tool has a six week lead time) and the product cost optimization (this additional part adds cost), the design engineer should not include the toe bumper in the design.

Some hard tradeoffs need to be made when prioritizing the program cost, scope, and schedule. By performing this exercise and communicating the priorities, the product development team will be given very clear objectives that allow the members to make their own tradeoffs knowing the overall program priorities. This will result in successful programs for both large and small projects at companies of all sizes.

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How to Properly Define Your Product

July 28 2011  |   leardonsolutions  |  All Posts, Program Management  |  1 Comment

Joe Donoghue, San Diego Prototyping, Patents & Prototypes, Live Web Show, Product Development, Engineering Services, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurial Product DevelopmentWhen an inventor, entrepreneur, or company has a great product idea, they typically start out by constructing a prototype to prove the idea is feasible.

While this might seem like the logical first step, it should actually be the second step taken. The first step should be to document the product features and functionality so that there are product goals for the team to pursue. Without first defining and communicating the product features, the product team will be moving forward blindly while wasting time and money.

Leardon Solutions follows a rigorous Product Development Lifecycle and commercialization process shown in the figure below to ensure all products achieve their product development goals and objectives. The first phase of this process, the Definition Phase, is sometimes thought to be the most important phase because it sets the stage for the success of the product. Without properly completing this phase, the team will be working without any objectives or goals for the product. A detailed list of the activities and deliverables that should be accomplished in the Definition Phase can be found in the Product Development Lifecycle presentation.

Leardon Solutions Product Development Lifecycle

Leardon Solutions Product Development Lifecycle. Copyright 2011 Leardon Solutions

To summarize, the goal in the Definition Phase is to do exactly what the title states: define the product thoroughly. An organization’s worst enemy in product development is vagueness and ambiguity. The engineers and designers need specifications and guidelines to properly complete their objectives and this phase provides the list of clear, concise, and measureable specifications. The two most important documents, the Product Requirements and Engineering Specifications, are described below.

Product Requirements: The Product Requirements, also known as Product Data Sheet or User Needs, is a list of performance, functional, and interface requirements that are focused on the customer’s point of view.  One way to compile a complete list of these requirements is to get the cross-functional product team together for a meeting and answer the following questions:

How will the product perform and what are the functional characteristics?

Will the product interface with other products outside of your control?

What are the industrial design requirements (the look of the product)?

What are the human factors requirements (the feel and human interaction of the product)?

Are there any installation, support, service, and maintenance requirements?

What type of qualification, regulatory, safety, and standards compliances are required?

Should the product be compatible with other products and if so what are these requirements?

What are the packaging, shipping, and labeling requirements?

This is just a short list of all the questions that will arise when compiling the Product Requirements document.  Of course, compilation of this document requires ample time and research but if it is done properly, it will be one of the most useful documents of the product development process.

Engineering Specifications: The Product Requirements document provided earlier is the first step in specifying the product with respect to the customer’s point of view. While this is very helpful for the product team, it does not typically provide an engineering team with enough detail to begin designing. Therefore, the engineering team needs to take these Product Requirements and translate them into Engineering Specifications. The engineers will use this document as they move through their design and development stages.

The simple example below demonstrates how to construct the Product Requirements and Engineering Specifications.

Leardon Solutions example product requirements

Leardon Solutions Product Requirements and Engineering Specifications Example

The effort required to generate the Product Requirements and Engineering Specifications might seem too detailed for such an early stage of product development. These documents are valuable resources that will be used throughout the product development lifecycle and will save the team valuable time and money by focusing the team on the proper goals and objectives. This is definitely a step that should not be skipped.

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