Manufacturing Project

PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION

The Company

An ex-University spin-out with an executive board comprising of two executive directors engaged in the day to day operations of the business and four representatives of the venture capital firm. The company developed a unique offering in stimuli sensitive holograms with potential applications as diverse as medical monitoring to security verification.

The Business Problem

With the need to secure a second round of venture funding, the company, which had been predominantly focused on research and development, needed to prove the product in the market place. A development framework with a global oil company to produce a version of the product to be used in their field based operation had been in place for two years. All previous field trial deadlines had been missed.
The company had to deliver to the timescales agreed to ensure the contract continued. In addition they needed to demonstrate credibility to venture capitalists and other clients thus allowing them to make the necessary investment in the business to satisfy future growth and expansion.

The Solution

Xanthe Childs was assigned to undertake a comprehensive review of the project with both the organisation and their client. This identified that no formal project management approach was being used. The consultant defined a project management method to be adopted by the company based on Prince2 and provided coaching on how to plan, monitor, identify risks, and develop mitigating actions. Using the framework provided by BSI EN ISO 9001, the requirement and acceptance criteria were base-lined, documented and signed off. The management and communication processes were reviewed and a project ‘room’ created to provide a visible status of the project. Regular checkpoints were implemented within the team and on an individual basis, dependencies were established and regular monitoring ensured that any slippage was known and managed. Using the Quality Assurance principal of PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) the manufacturing and production processes were tested and achieved sign-off prior to production starting. The supply chain was mapped, and potential distribution suppliers engaged. The distribution strategy was defined, agreed and documented; once volumes increase the strategy can be easily implemented.

The Benefits

The relationship with their client was re-established as a successful field trial was carried out in four locations around the world, demonstrating both the commitment of the organisation to the success of the field trial, but also re-building their reputation by meeting deadlines. Staff became more proactive as the continued delays and fear of both personal and company failure had de-motivated them. Confidence in the ability to deliver grew within the organisation as milestones were achieved, this provided the senior management team with a demonstrable track record to discuss with potential clients and venture funding suppliers. In addition business development opportunities increased as the company now had a demonstrable track record. The project management toolset implemented in the client organisation provided a framework to allow deadlines to be tracked and decisions to be made in a timely manner, in addition it provided a framework for communication with board members and clients that ensured all parties were aware of the status and progress of the development.