BEFORE They Ask!
- Marty Schad
- Nov 21, 2019
- 2 min read
Before who asks?
Your boss or some other stakeholder (who can significantly influence your project).
Asks what? There can be a few different questions, depending on the situation.
The question for NEW processes…
“How is the process you are developing doing? Will we be able to bring it into production successfully?”
The question for EXISTING production processes…
“How is your improvement project on our production process progressing? Will the increased yield and profits we are seeking actually happen?”
What is your answer? It’s probably not a simple answer, given the complexity of developing robust processes.
So, BEFORE they ask, think about this, and prepare a “dossier” or summary that will proactively answer their question.
This summary or dossier will be very useful to you to summarize your thinking and findings. Also, it helps you to be prepared for any discussions that might arise. It can be a super useful tool to quickly update folks on the current situation.
What are some items that should be included in the dossier? Some ideas follow.
New Process Dossier
Key assumptions and internal dependencies.
Key players on project and their roles - both internal and external.
Process overview (high level).
Key research focus.
Key customer successes.
Key customer problems.
Important technical issues (“stoppers”) with large impact & difficult to solve and the plan of attack to resolve the problem.
Key milestones.
Next scheduled project review date.
Where to go to get more information: project website, etc.
Important issues needing stakeholder support
Cost model highlights.
Existing Manufacturing Process Dossier
Current production yields.
Profit impact of 1% yield improvement.
Potential for Yield Improvement Projects.
Key milestones.
Process overview.
Key customer successes.
Key customer problems.
Supplier process robustness, vulnerabilities to supplier disruptions.
My main learning from this is the utility of preparing this summary or dossier, to coalesce our thinking and to make our thinking explicit and available to others. If we do this proactively and before anyone asks, it can be a valuable approach to make the state of our “invisible processes” explicit. This will help generate project support and enable better decisions to be made about future paths forward.
CHALLENGE TO READERS
Please think about your key (important to the business) processes being developed or already in manufacturing…
Can you prepare a dossier for a project of current importance? This will be a useful “stake in the ground” to refer to later, to understand the complete picture and complexity of the situation.
Do you need additional resources and funding to move forward faster and more confidently? Preparation of a dossier will be very useful for you to clarify your thinking and communicate a complete picture of the situation to your stakeholders.
I’m interested in how the concept of “process dossiers” resonates with you. What are your thoughts about this? If you email us, we will get back to you promptly. Thanks!
All the Best,
Marty
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