Design Reviews and You!
An important part of design reviews is understanding their long-term implications. Often, time pressures and egos prevent engineers and R&D project leaders from even doing them. But we need to understand that the cost of not doing design reviews, or not doing them well, can be significant.
A project leader may be assigned a project with a specific deliverable and the timeline to complete the project is typically within a 3-6 month period. Then the project is considered complete when the new equipment is up and running or the new product is launched and is selling on the market. But what type of rough wake is left behind that project manager if they don't do a design review? Is the equipment user-friendly? Is the product designed for manufacturability? One simple oversight on the part of the project manager can cause long-term production inefficiencies. Overlooking the importance of design reviews during project implementation has serious long-term cost implications.
If you are a project leader, put your ego aside. Accept that you do not know everything there is to know about efficient operations. People who work in the shop floor trenches have information that you need. This includes machine operators, packers, maintenance mechanics, electricians and even quality inspectors. People who will do the daily work that supports your project will be doing it for the next 5, 10 or even 20 years and they deserve input. What they know about the process can certainly add value to your project.
A critical step in effective project management is to include design reviews into a project timeline. Even if you are under pressure to deliver your project against an aggressive launch date, you must understand that design reviews will increase your probability of project success, not diminish it. If you get resistance from managers, push back and simply insist on it. Design reviews are a nonnegotiable step of any large-scale project.
Keys to a successful design view include:
First, understand what is flexible within the design. Are there engineering changes that can be made? Is the equipment custom whereas anything goes? Or is it semi-custom where some design changes can be implemented? Or is it off-the-shelf, whereas machine design changes are off-limits?
Second, understand that even with off-the-shelf equipment, design reviews are still critical. A cross-functional design review team can still add value in terms of machine location, layout, materials flow and maintenance access. Auxiliary components can be discussed as well. Things like safety features, safety devices, noise levels, changeover procedures, maintenance methods and troubleshooting can all be addressed before the equipment arrives and this will save time later.
Third, humor every idea. When an employee brings up an idea, consider it carefully. Maybe their idea is unrealistic within a reasonable cost framework, but understand that even though their proposal may be unjustified, the problem that they are trying to solve is real. So sometimes you need to listen for a problem and come up with a design solution on your own. One that solves that operational problem. If the equipment is custom, then be creative. Try not to let your ego prevent reasonable solutions. Remember, adding a few dollars to the upfront cost may save thousands of dollars over many years of production.
Fourth, document the input of the design review team and address every point they bring up. You’ll come across a range of potential design improvements. After you investigate each idea, you’ll need to have detailed responses. Whether you answer with a YES or a NO to an idea, you owe it to the team to respond with an answer and provide an explanation.
Who do you include in a design review?
To decide who to include, simply consider who will be working around your project for the next few years. This would be operators of various levels of experience, material delivery employees, maintenance employees and maybe quality inspectors. The more cross-functional and diverse the team, the better the project results. Think about every operator’s experience. A new operator may want things simplified, so they will come up with ideas to simplify the process. An operator with mid-level experience may be more focused on machine troubleshooting and making improvements that make the process more stable. Meanwhile a highly experienced operator will have more input on product design and eliminating recurrent defects.
So, when you look to create your design review team consider employees that will add value by offering different perspectives. Who can provide a perspective that differs from your own perspective? Who is hands-on? Who will interface with your project in the long-term, for the years to come? Consider the shop floor employees as the customers of your final project design.
Additionally consider your plant's subject matter experts. These could be people like your plant's Safety Manager who can provide details about OSHA compliance and safety considerations. How about your Quality Manager? Maybe they have data about quality defects that would be helpful, and you could solve them via a robust design. Or how about the Operations Department Manager? Maybe they have process and downtime data that would lead to design improvements.
There are really two-levels of input that you want to collect. First the hands-on shop floor level and second the process management level. Solicit all of this information and document it. Then you will need to prioritize it and consider solutions. Of course you can’t do it all. Time and costs will be hurdles. Tackle what you can and table what you can’t accomplish. The key is to decide consciously and close they loop with the team. Otherwise, there is no excuse for a poor design.
Design reviews reduce long-term costs, they increase the probability of project success, and they establish employee buy-in which is critical for a winning project.
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