Part 2 in the Product Disaster Series
Lost in the Woods tells the “if only…” story of a company that’s forced to scrap the big roll-out of an extremely promising product redesign. Stunned by the loss of so many expected sales and accolades, the company is painfully reminded that true revision control takes more than a spreadsheet bill of materials (BOM) on a server and verbal engineering change notifications (ECNs).
Marketing had already committed big bucks to become a gold sponsor of the Maine Xtreme Hiking Challenge when Rocky Habilis, the VP of Engineering and Operations, saw the organizer’s RFQ for the gear. As a developer of high-tech equipment for extreme athletes, not only did this job have the company’s name all over it, he argued, but Maine’s rugged mountain forests, rocky shores, and changeable weather would be a perfect stage to roll out Denali Outdoor Products’ new extended-battery-life EveryPath safety companion.
It didn’t take much convincing and Denali Outdoor landed the contract — a big fat contract that wiped away the sponsorship costs. Rocky drove the engineering team to come through fast with the redesign they had been tinkering with. Now all they had to do was wait for the EveryPath to be built. Rocky didn’t need what happened next.
Louise Endrijonas, the lead Manufacturing Engineer, burst into his office with a cluster of papers in her fist. Tom Sullivan, the Purchasing Manager, and Ravi Vaidianathan, his top-gun Electrical Engineer, were with her, looking extremely ill at ease.
“Can’t do it, Rocky,” said Louise. “No time. We blew it.”
Getting the Maine Xtreme Challenge contract was a coup. Contestants would be walking billboards for the device’s medical monitor, mileage tracker, GPS locator, and patented HelpAid safety beacon with automatic 911 calling trigger as they hiked, rafted, climbed, and camped their way nearly 400 miles from Kittery to the Acadian Landing Site monument in Madawaska, arriving in time for the annual Acadian Festival. But getting the job also meant that the EveryPath model redesign project had to be a done deal months ahead of time, and initial results were discouraging.
The basic project was to add special sensors and communications to the current GPS tracker model and, at the same time, extend the battery life from about 6 hours to a minimum of 7 days. They would replace the present energy-hogging circuitry with newly released low-power memory and processors. This was turning out to be more difficult than anyone thought it would be, so Rocky turned the redesign over to Ravi, but not without a bit of foreboding.
In many ways, Ravi is an electrical engineer’s electrical engineer. He’s fast and ingenious. But he’s also a loose cannon, explaining why he wasn’t Rocky’s first choice for the assignment. Ravi is bored by and more than a bit lax about everything else that goes around his job like documenting what he’s doing and communicating with co-workers.
They had only 8 weeks until the event, so Rocky knew that the only way they could get the EveryPath redesigned and 200 units built by Lu in China and delivered to the gates of old Fort McClary in Kittery was to have Ravi do his magic virtually overnight. And Ravi came through. He even, for once, updated the Excel spreadsheet that Denali Outdoor used for its bill of materials (BOM) on the server.
It took Ravi three long days to redesign the EveryPath with low-power circuitry and assemble a test device with sample parts he had sent to him overnight. After 7 days of 24-hour living with his craftsmanship, Ravi announced triumphantly that the batteries remained charged beyond specifications.
Marketing was thrilled. They added more events to their big roll-out, made travel arrangements for extra staff, and hired a few more local Maine photographers, caterers, and models. The CEO even decided that he’d go East to take part in the festivities. Rocky was pleased too. Denali Outdoor had achieved its redesign with plenty of time in the manufacturing cycle to deal with any minor problems that would surely crop up. It was a race against time “Ah, but the race belongs to the swift,” mused Rocky to himself. “There will be bonuses this quarter. Things are looking good.”
Good, that is, until Louise and crew came into his office bearing bad news.
“What do you mean no time?” asked Rocky incredulously.
“I just got an email from Lu saying we can’t build the new EveryPath because the processor doesn’t fit,” said Louise. “The one they ordered is not what I have on my manufacturing bill of materials.”
“Wait. Wait. What?”
Maine’s varied terrain and weather offered the perfect chance to demonstrate the EveryPath.“Take a look,” she said, placing the email on his desk along with a color photograph of a stuffed EveryPath circuit board. Stuffed that was, except for the gaping hole where the processor goes. Also in the picture was a chip, a chip that was clearly too big to fit in that hole.
“Apparently, the bill of materials we sent them listed the chip for one of the old redesigns that didn’t work,” explained Louise. “It sounds like the printed circuit boards are right, but the low-power processor is the wrong one.”
“How’d he get that?” asked Rocky.
“I don’t know,” said Louise. “All I know is that I emailed Lu the manufacturing BOM and the Gerber files I got from Ravi after the prototype passed the battery life test and you gave the go-ahead.”
“That’s the right one,” said Ravi, pointing at the spreadsheet in Louise’s hand.
“I think I messed up,” piped up Tom sheepishly. “Wai Chu, Lu’s purchasing guy, asked me if he could have a copy of the bill of materials so that he could get going on ordering parts. I emailed him what I had on my machine. I thought I had the latest revision.”
“Crud. OK. So we sent them two conflicting bills of materials and they used the wrong one to order parts. Email Lu the right BOM again to make absolutely sure he’s got it right. Then overnight him the right parts,” said Rocky. “We have 6 and a half weeks left to build and ship this thing to Maine.”
“Not going to happen,” said Louise. “Lu already went back and checked the bill of materials I sent, then had his purchasing guy make some calls. The right chips in China are back-ordered 8 to 10 weeks, and Tom tells me we have a 12-week lead time here because we get the chips from China.”
“What about somebody else?” asked Rocky. “Alternative parts? Can’t we get this stuff from somewhere to Lu?”
“I rushed to get the basic design done. I haven’t had time to fully investigate alternate parts,” replied Ravi. “And there just isn’t enough time to get them, make sure they work, and get them to China.”
“Why did Lu’s guy ask you for the bill of materials anyway, Tom? You’re not in charge of the master BOM,” said Rocky.
Everyone knew the answer to that question. Rocky was in charge of the master BOM, but he usually had Tom release it to their contract manufacturer (CM). Wai Chu was being proactive and contacted the only person he knew at Denali Outdoors — Tom.
A single miscommunicated revision was the difference between success and disaster.As tempting as it might be to fix on Tom the entire blame for the missed introduction of the new EveryPath, as well as the costs of the returned parts and canceled marketing launch events, Tom is just the most obvious symptom of a larger systematic failure at Denali Outdoor Products. Poor handling of two key processes — product information control and supply chain communications — practically pre-ordained what came to pass.
The disaster at Denali Outdoor unfolded quickly once Ravi dutifully updated the bill of materials on the server while failing to send an engineering change order to Rocky or Tom. First, Tom did not verify whether or not he had the final manufacturing bill of materials (BOM). Then, Wai Chu assumed that he had the final bill of materials because Rocky usually had Tom send it to him, so he never even knew that the manufacturing BOM Louise sent to Lu existed. Toss in Ravi’s inability to develop a fallback plan should hard-to-find parts live up to their name, combine it with Wai Chu’s not making sure that the correct chip (that he knew nothing about) was readily available for this accelerated project, and Denali Outdoor never really had a chance of making the deadline for its big project.
While accelerated schedules may require creativity and shortcuts, communications and BOM documentation shouldn’t be the corners you cut. The poor data control and the lack of standardized communication between Denali Outdoor team members and their CM links the old bill of materials to the current disaster. The manufacturing BOM Louise sent to the CM — the correct version — rendered just a tantalizing yet missed opportunity to avert disaster. But Lu’s organization didn’t recognize it had two different BOMs until they tried to assemble the PCBA (printed circuit board assembly) — and then it was too late…
When under pressing deadlines, companies often do what Denali Outdoor Products did: sacrifice controls and firm lines of communication in the name of expediency. Ironically, it is at exactly those times — when complexity skyrockets and timeframes shorten — that tight data controls and clear lines of communication are most essential. Here are 3 ways that you can get the control, communications and visibility you need and still meet that looming deadline.
Have one place for the bill of materials — a single change-controlled location to manage the BOM is the foundation of a successful revision control strategy.Make sure that once changes are routed and approved, they are instantly incorporated and available to everyone.
Controlling revisions to the bill of materials is vital, but if approved change orders go unnoticed and are left unincorporated, your BOM is not really in control. Establish a firm channel and an automatic process for communicating changes to all key members of the team and supply chain.
Provide a single channel for your suppliers to get the product information they need; more than one introduces too much complexity. The cost of any lack of clarity will ultimately fall on you, the OEM. At a minimum, make sure your suppliers and contract manufacturers receive each engineering change notification. Even better, involve your supply chain in the change review process; if they sign off, you know they got it.
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