We Didn't Think of That

Challenge: For the first time, a manufacturing process had been transferred from the site where it was initially released to a brand new site in another country. The transfer had been medium-successful, with a few glaring oversights that led to outsized problems for the finance, manufacturing, and supply chain teams to untangle. The rate of transfer to this quickly ramping new site was planned to be nearly exponential. How to avoid an exponenential increase in things being overlooked?

Action: Nothing beats a checklist. The solution here was relatively simple, the most difficult part was identifying the trigger and acceptance mechanisms for product transfers. Fortunately, the company had a great design and development gate process in place that acted as a template for implementing a transfer process. After convening a team of cross-functional senior management and leads, we developed a check list that was to be reviewed by representatives from each stakeholder team (supply chain, planning, manufacturing engineering, quality, and finance), at a formal process transfer meeting. We also leveraged their existing PLM system to include a lifecycle phase that indicates that a product had been released via change order to the new site.

Result: The next three products transferred went through the new process, with only minor issues. The client's internal team has decided to improve on the new process by having each stakeholder team write best practices guidelines for transfer review. The most valuable result is a team that is ready to meet the next challenge!