Innovation management : a study on Convergence methodology named here “Orbital Management”

“Innovation Management: A Synthesis of Academic and Industrial Points of View.” (Tomala, F. and Senechal, O. , 2003) International Journal of Project Management, 22: 281-287.10. Link to this paper

Abstract: This paper synthesizes several works about innovation management. By blending both academic and industrial points of view, we hope to help those participating in innovative projects become aware of the latest thoughts of other groups involved in innovation management. Our discussion underlines the importance of innovation as well as the various problematical aspects of innovation management. Three principal points are considered: the types of actors involved in innovation, the organizational perimeters for innovation and the types of organization chosen for innovative projects. The case study of the Renault automobile company highlights a new means of managing innovation, called orbital management, which involves a new project structure specific to innovation management.

Extract :

“… Each project group is animated by a pilot group of 8–15 people, including both internal and external partners of the company. This committee meets every 2 weeks to verify the progress of the results chains described in each convergence plan. The pilot groups of each innovation project proceed in the same manner, and each one of their members is connected, via an intranet, to all the other innovation project team members.
Each innovation project is managed like a start-up, with the nomination of a project leader, the ‘‘pilot of the innovation system’’, who is seconded by the innovations project leader during the preliminary meetings. Thus, the primary manager of innovation projects [...] is ultimately responsible for 15 innovative projects.
Project leaders must both master the technological complexities of the project and exhibit excellent interpersonal skills; their job is to bring together the skills and energy needed to achieve the end results the innovation project.
The galaxy in Fig. 1 [...] thus makes it possible to visualize the complex grid of relationships existing between the various entities that make up the project team.

The diagram in Fig. 2 shows that the success of innovation can be achieved only at an ‘‘extended’’ company level and requires both horizontal and vertical decompartmentalization. This structure is different from the matrix structure because an innovation project manager supervises the whole project. This person must make sure that internal and external skills are in synergy: innovation is a broad collective action, requiring the collaboration of various services with the same the fixed objective. At an in-house level, this person plays the role of consultant.
The diagram in Fig. 3 presents an example of a convergence plan. In each box, the results to be obtained are specified, as are the actors who will be involved. (To make the table easier to read, a color can be associated to an actor or to a type of result.)

[...] The objective of innovative project management is to better integrate and control the risk associated with the stress that accompanies the process of innovation; it is the management of uncertainty. [...] the convergence plan is central. It aims to control the process by focusing on
the desired results. It requires the careful definition of the project actors, the stakes, the problem evoked in the project and the results expected at each stage. Starting with the results desired by the customer, chains of intermediate results are constructed, all of which must converge towards the ultimate goal. Each intermediate result is a very clearly specified commitment. These results chains enable the project teams to concretely develop their technological contributions and to set up their actions in practical terms.
Using the convergence plans, the teams can see where they need to go and what resources and competences will be needed to get there. These plans formalize all the relationships that must be managed to obtain the desired final result.

[...] All of these imply learning to manage stress; management by results means dealing with uncertainty and doubt on a day-to-day basis, without taking refuge behind procedures. “

F.D.

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The Convergence Methodology : a cultural change (Part 2)

As a method to work better in a multi-disciplinary team in project, the convergence methodology consists in identify the success conditions : the expected results chains to get from defined contributors at logical dates one from another allowing to achieve the project deliverable (final result).

This is a permanent “task-force” dynamics set up at the beginning of the project without waiting that the problems occur at the end of the project. It allows to keep in mind that the task planning obtained from the traditional process is not adapted in most of the projects.

The statements such as “the schedule shows it’s impossible…” are wrong and the only question to be asked is “What are the success conditions to…?”

It’s a change of state of mind.

The Convergence methodology allows to :

-          built quickly an achievement process with a high level of trust :

• collective building with experts
• high visibility of the results chain to solve a problem by deliverable identification
• localization of each result on the time scale
• definition of each contributor and commitment from him
• each result has an importance level and conditions of achievement (budget)
• progress visibility by trajectory building
• collective and continuous control of the progress

-          change the behaviours :

• from an “employee” to an “intrapreneur” state of mind

“Employee”	“Intrapreneur”
Quality and cost hope.	Dependability and design to cost process application
Treatment of appeared problems	Risk treatment by anticipation with action plans
Project management by the stress	Stress management to be more efficient
The schedule shows it’s impossible	The schedule is required by the customer, therefore what are the success conditions ?
I manage only Tier one suppliers	Design deployment with each contributor (Tier one, two…)

This allows to develop inter-expertise knowledge and often produces unexpected ideas. The “weak signals” from each single contributor is taken into account and all exchanges are structured (especially with suppliers)

The Convergence methodology is especially applicable to

-          an Innovation project

-          a development of a complex system (complex technologies, or complex contributor organization)

-          a technical domain where the company lost part of its knowledge (turnover, retirements)

-          a “task-force” to challenge traditional processes

F.D.

References : (1) “Management de projet”, Jean-Claude Corbel, Editions d’Organisations

Next time : The Convergence Methodology : Functional organization and “Orbital management” 

Contact us for an application of this methodology on your challenging project !!

The Convergence Methodology : Project Managements by the results (Part 1)

Introduction

The convergence methodology has been developed in the Automotive industry (Renault company) to improve the project teams efficiency in a context of strong competition (schedules always tightened to be the first to sell a product, more and more innovations to differentiate the product).

Consisting in a real cultural change, this methodology is focused on the results to be got to reach the project goal and produces a real change of state of mind of each contributor. It supports the necessary transverse collaboration of all different expertises involved in the development of products more and more complex while a traditional organization cannot manage this complexity. Of course it doesn’t work against traditional company processes, but structures and challenges them.

The team building, as identification of each contributor and exchanges between each other is a key phase of the convergence plan building. During the project carrying out, the progress will be then monitored by relevant indicators and the convergence plan will be updated if necessary until the final result.

Convergence methodology and systems engineering

In a recent past, it was easy to split a big system into relatively independent functions one from the others. Nowadays, systems can mainly be split into sub-systems with interactions and interfaces. This complexity makes difficult to get the permanent visibility of all the results obtained vs to be obtained and identify one’s personal contribution regarding other contributors. The convergence methodology is a powerful tool, because it is collectively made to respect the targets and the constraints. It must be continuously updated and visible by everybody at each moment. The application of this methodology showed very good results in System Engineering as it fits each development stage from the stakeholders expectations to the detailed components study.

Convergence plan and expert process

The convergence plan does not work against traditional expertise process. It is a tool to be used especially in two cases where it will show a powerful efficiency : A special task-force in order to shorten the development schedule, or the implementation of an innovation where there is a need to define a new action plan because no usual process can be applied.

The expertise processes are the result of a long experience in the company and of a robust know-how. « By strictly applying the process, the result is guaranteed ». The advantage is not to lose time in re-inventing the method, by applying what older experts have defined on previous projects. By this way the application of processes is efficient and can save resources.

Nevertheless, the processes can not be frozen in a world in perpetual evolution. The convergence plan allows to challenge the processes and optimize them in time and resources, being of course aware not to remove important actions of the existing processes but organizing them differently with each contributor. The experts have here a very important role, by supplying the justification of each action in order to avoid that a past concern happens again.

In conclusion, the convergence plan allows to optimize existing processes or to creat new ones in case of an innovation.

F.D.

References : (1) “Management de projet”, Jean-Claude Corbel, Editions d’Organisations

Next time : The Convergence Methodology : cultural change

Contact us for an application of this methodology on your challenging project !!

An introduction to the Collaborative Process Engineering : the role of the Project Manager

The project manager role is to care about interfaces. All the problems always come from the interfaces. Basically you can rely on experts to manage their domain, care about each detail to solve issues and to build a product with quality following their engineering rules.

But the more complex the systems are, the more components are required, the more contributors are involved and the most complex is the communication between contributors. The project manager has to make sure the communication will be at the right level of understanding between all the contributors.

Only the birds fly in the same direction. In a company, even with the best intentions, people will follow different ways and objectives. In the purchasing department, people want the lowest price. In the product department, people want the best performance. In the manufacturing department, people want the easiest assembly operations. In the engineering department, people want to use standard solutions from another project because they have other projects to manage on the same time… thus the project manager must put consistency in all these operations and carefully deploy the right communication:

-          Communication about the project targets, the project organization

-          Communication between experts in order to find the best solutions in decision committees where all the decisions will be spread to each contributor.

Each contributor has a hierarchical manager to make sure the product is designed in the right way, with quality and safety standards. The role of the project manager is to animate this galaxy of contributors evolving sometimes in chaotic movements…

That’s why the main activity of the project manager should be : “Just care of the communication between people”

Another important thing is to care about the understanding of each other. Because each expert usually speaks his own language : mechanic engineering, electronic engineering, finance and economics, purchasing, administrative, contract managers in legal department, sales… have all their own words and processes.

A fundamental activity of project management is that all these processes will be coordinated, at the same phasis.

How many situations have been blocked because of misunderstanding between a company and its supplier ? Not always because of opposite targets or interest conflict, but because of different processes that make the cooperation misunderstood and apparently difficult or even impossible in the required schedule. A good practice is to understand what is behind each single “expert word” or behind each “milestone acronym”, what are the requirements, the necessary results for each contributor to achieve his own successful task, and hunt each single “area of shade” and misunderstood informations.

That’s how you can implement a successful collaborative project and achieve your targets. That’s the philosophy of the convergence methodology that will be described in the next posts.

How to start your project ?

You have been assigned, you have a team, a budget, a schedule and you are impatient to get a first result to write in your weekly report… but how should you start ?

First ask yourself the right questions, and find answers from the whole team to generate motivation and dynamics. Is the project well defined in terms of :

- Results expected by the customer (quality, performance) ?

- Results expected by the company (capitalization of know-how, development of a standard, potential future developments of new similar projects …) ?

- Profitability (breakdown of all the expenses and income on the whole life cycle of the project, calculation of profitability indicators, risks on raw material and currency rates…) ?

- Schedule (milestones, including in serial life and aftersales) ?

- Risks of cancellation (for what reasons the company could give up the project?)

- Resources providing, especially human resources (Who are the contributors? For each of them, what is their involvement level on the project?)

- External partners associated to the project (Which suppliers, partners, customers? who are the “experts” and project contributors of each partner companny? What are schedule and budget? responsibility-sharing, job-sharing and budget-sharing ?)

- Objectivation of decision elements (refer to next post, “Value assessment  to decide”) ?

- Organization (standard week schedule, weekly meetings, experts decisions committee, processes and rules to be applied…) 

This phase is essential to define all the details that could lead to a project cancellation and that you’ll have to keep under monitoring… at the risk to be sent back home before the end of the project !

All missing information must be obtained from the company managers at the begining, in order not to look for it during the project as you’ll have better to do! Therefore let’s anticipate ! Murphy’s law applied to the missing information is clear “You are certainly going to need each single missing information before the end of the project”…

As soon you have all these informations, you’ll have to formalize them in a kick-off file and make sure all the project contributors share these informations. Then you can schedule you kick-off meeting and start the game !