TABLE OF CONTENTS Part Three addresses fundamental elements needed for improving the product development process, which include resource and workload management, implementing a reuse strategy, and building the infrastructure to enable process improvement.
As workload demands fluctuate, a company has to flex available resources to meet changing demand. Years of company downsizing, however, have made it increasingly difficult for companies to adequately support fluctuations that represent high-peak demand periods. This is the case with many companies involved with product development. Compounding this situation, product development organizations have been attempting to concurrently satisfy the requirements of:
Customers demanding shorter product development cycle times
Management dictating the need for more product and after-market support
Factories requiring additional support to resolve product-related problems and cost reductions
Consequently, the ability of product development organizations to balance their resource and workload demands has become a major issue.
In terms of resource management, the challenge for organizations is to achieve high productivity from scarce resources. To accomplish this, companies must first have a fundamental understanding of all of the demands of its resources. Next, companies must be capable of allocating their resources to the highest value projects. To achieve these objectives, companies should use a process that facilitates clear alignment of resources with workload demands, and provides the capability of adjusting resources in a timely fashion. Undermining these objectives,...
