Scott L Wilks

The inefficiency of interacting yet independent purchasing systems in use by three divisions increased component material costs and slowed time-to-market on critical new product lines. The various product development teams employed varying management metrics creating internal conflicts. Unit management cited the excessive investment required to produce a common methodology as reason for retaining existing procedures.

Surveyed all key stakeholders to gather and evaluate the best practices from each organization. With the data as a foundation, followed lean principles and promptly value-stream mapped an amalgamated process compatible with the needs of each group. Constructed and automated the operational IT tool. Negotiated at length with the disjointed sites to secure a commitment to replace the favored systems with an alternate solution.

In addition to curtailing $3 million in administrative expenses, the new program reduced material costs and shortened the release schedules of introductory items. The success led to the program’s adoption as the corporate standard.

The change management processes employed by all corporate divisions relied on independent IT complexes in place before the company restructuring that did not interact effectively. Many senior managers resisted replacing existing resources with a program common to all locations. Millions in development costs, significant operational risks involved with executing a switchover, and the attendant need for an expensive companion model at the corporate level reinforced the argument for retaining legacy systems.

Creating and gaining acceptance of a universal solution required convincing representatives from each affected group, many holding staunch parochial attitudes, of the value of change. Collaborated closely with colleagues to form the needed alliances and, after achieving success, expanded an operating divisional process into a broader procedure amenable to the entire organization. Completed the transition by shutting down all outdated IT and installing the global engineering system. Contributed to a stable changeover by preparing the training materials used to educate 50,000 users.

Adoption of the division-level global engineering system and the corporate-level companion significantly reduced change-related issues and mended customer relationships.

Senior management assigned the engineering group responsibility for narrowing the time consumed developing new products from an average of several years to a schedule more in line with industry standards. Overcoming the obstacles of an inherently silo-focused environment required deep understanding of system complexity and the functional groups’ cross-networking traditions.

Extended the concept of applying lean principles to business procedures and not simply manufacturing practices, a recognized industry first. Identified, structured, or optimized more than 20 activities associated with product development, and established a system for capturing all engineering best practices and simplifying access during design cycles. The enhancements encouraged embrace of work-place organization concepts and set-based engineering. Domestic use of the progressive solution promoted adoption across the organization and raised the efficiency of global team collaboration.

The change generated a 20% reduction in go-to-market lead time strengthening competitive advantages and saving millions through greater process efficiencies.

By shutting down the production lines of several major customers seven times in a short period the company faced losing the right to compete for future business. Outdated and poorly implemented change management processes fueled the problems and cost millions in expensive ad-hoc responses.

Within weeks of receiving the remedy assignment, put in place a containment process that provided immediate temporary relief. Used the extended time frame to design a CM2-based permanent solution that evolved into the industry standard and which 75 plants and 15 engineering technical centers across the globe easily adopted. Authored instructional materials used in training seminars conducted by 100 international change management boards.

Due to the advanced methodology, zero change-related quality issues occurred across the production infrastructure saving not only millions in corrective action expenses but also the company’s standing with critical customers. One of the previously extremely dissatisfied customers later opinioned that the company qualified as a best-practices leader and recommended all the firm’s suppliers consider implementing the program.

Most members of leadership and users of the company’s quality management system failed to recognize the profit opportunities presented by improvement of business processes. Since lean management techniques traditionally focused on manufacturing issues, business control problems earned classification as document management concerns creating minimal interest in continuous improvement projects.

Initiated an educational program to raise awareness of lean’s potential positive impact on administrative concepts, practices, tools, and documents. Activated the industry-standard Configuration Management 2 (CM2) change software and updated the company’s existing control programs to a lean enterprise operating system (EOS). Combined the corporate change review board and corporate change management process with a highly integrated operating system that linearly aligned all corporate managerial mechanisms improving organizational efficiency and boosting bottom-line results. Moved all the processes from separate vaults located around the world to a single website under CM2 change control. Shifting the monitoring to corporate and divisional control assured compliance and facilitated continuous improvement activities on more than 40,000 company-wide policies and procedures.

As a result of more fully understanding how to globally approve and implement functional group processes, the corporation saved millions annually in productivity improvements and elimination of valueless corrective action rituals.

As part of a Chapter 11 restructuring, company leadership and turnaround consultants scrutinized the business practices of seven divisions using key corporate metrics to quantify values. The studies revealed vexing deviations in comparable processes accumulated over time by the individual units. The negative impact of the differences on profitability disturbed stakeholders and raised the importance of developing a universally appliable solution.

In response, management formed a corporate common process team (CCPT) and directed use of lean principles to evaluate the procedures of each group with the objective of devising a single approach for all. Applied the concepts of an earlier-developed configuration management process as the guide for assessing, selecting, and incorporating each unit’s practices into a common approach based on value-added contribution. The success of the technique led to adoption as the new corporate change management procedure and the inauguration of the corporate change review board as replacement for the CCPT.

After the initial year spent concentrating on a dozen key processes, memo improvements totaled $117 million spread across cost reductions, working capital gains, and price / product launch performance improvements. The corporate change review board continued to optimize methodologies adding millions in incremental savings and performance gains.