CHALLENGE
Reduce a prototype development cycle to save millions in revenue loss and development cost. A large OEM’s captive custom chip prototype development cycle was taking between 36 and 40 months to complete. Each month of delay had a significant impact on this $4 Billion product line.
KEY CHANGES
- Re-organized program leadership to a “two in the box” joint responsibility between the engineering design manager (with deep knowledge of design engineering) and the program manager (with cross-functional expertise across design, project management, operations and manufacturing).
- Standardized and improved program communication tools and reduced program reviews and management update meetings, to enable longer uninterrupted “blocks” of time for engineers to work.
- Improved the criteria and process for selecting engineering leads for functional areas: each had to exhibit technical competence and ability to lead a group.
IMPACT
- The first generation of improvements reduced the cycle time to between 28 and 32 months, across multiple design programs. This was an average 20% reduction in time.
- Financial impact included a monthly revenue savings of $75M and a $4M reduction in development costs.