Monthly Archives: March 2011

Should have gone to Spec wavers..#pmot #in

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product specHow many times have you worked on projects where the product spec is not defined?

This leads to all sorts of issues as the customer tweaks the product spec and the designer responds accordingly, trying to keep the customer happy but at the same time disappointing her because the timescale keeps getting extended to accommodate the changes.  A vicious circle develops leading to frustration on all sides & a perception of incompetence which can lead to loss of all important business.

This can be fixed by adopting the following practice:-

1)      A milestone MUST be put in the plan, somewhere in the design phase, for product spec sign off by both parties.

2)      It should be clearly communicated and understood that any changes following this milestone will be under change control, approved by Senior Management and will impact the timing plan & probably have a cost impact.

This practice is good for both customer & supplier. It forces the customer to clarify what they want and leaves the supplier with no excuse for not meeting planned deliverables once the spec is fixed.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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project managers and business consultants

“Dee eff emm eee aaay”…? #pmot #in

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DFMEADFMEA or Design Failure Modes Effects Analysis is a Risk Management Tool which is widely used throughout the Automotive Industry.

DFMEA is a Team activity which is led by the Project Manager or Senior Design Engineer.

It involves using a set form & identifying the risks in the project.

Each Risk is called a Failure Mode. Each has an Effect. The Severity of this Effect is assigned a score where 10 is high impact & 1 low impact.

Each Failure Mode also has a Cause which is ranked according to its Occurrence or likelihood between 1 & 10.

Each Failure Mode also has a Current Control and its chance of detection is ranked 10 unlikely to 1 likely.

The product of Severity x Cause x Control gives us a Risk Priority Number or RPN which gives us a measure of the size of the problem and the urgency to address it.

Identifying a Recommended Action for each Failure Mode leads us to rescoring the Occurrence & Detection and subsequently reducing the RPN.

The key to success of DFMEA is not to get too hung up about the scores and to use it as intended, as a comparative tool for Risk Analysis.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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project managers and business consultants

The difference between price & cost…#in..#pmot

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price & cost

How many times have you inherited a project and had major problems with a supplier who was selected because they were cheap !

This perception of “cheap” is normally based purely on price and takes absolutely no account of the total cost of ownership of the product or service.

Selecting suppliers purely on price is never a good idea.

Here are some great tips from Businesslink:-

What you should look for in a supplier

There are a number of key characteristics that you should look for when identifying and short listing possible suppliers. Good suppliers should be able to demonstrate that they can offer you the following benefits.

Quality and reliability

The quality of your supplies needs to be consistent – your customers associate poor quality with you, not your suppliers. Equally, if your supplier lets you down with a late delivery or faulty supplies, you may let your customer down.

Speed and flexibility

Being able to place frequent, small orders lets you avoid tying up too much working capital in stock. Flexible suppliers help you respond quickly to changing customer demands and sudden emergencies.

Value for money

The lowest price is not always the best value for money. If you want reliability and quality from your suppliers, you’ll have to decide how much you’re willing to pay for your supplies and the balance you want to strike between cost, reliability, quality and service.

Strong service and clear communication

You need your suppliers to deliver on time, or to be honest and give you plenty of warning if they can’t. The best suppliers will want to talk with you regularly to find out what needs you have now and how they can serve you better in the future.

Financial security

It’s always worth making sure your supplier has sufficiently strong cashflow to deliver what you want, when you need it. A credit check will help reassure you that they won’t go out of business when you need them most.

Always remember the difference between price & cost

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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project managers and business consultants