Launch products faster:
Stop hiring, start fixing

It’s happening everywhere.

Multimillion dollar contracts with long-standing customers: canceled. Because OEMs and suppliers can’t deliver fast enough and keep delaying product launches.

Now the problem is receiving company-wide attention. Engineering leaders need to find a way to fix product launch delays.

And they think the only lever in their control is to throw talent resources at the problem. More design engineers, more DFM specialists, more PLM admins.

But what if the greatest lever in your control is actually to fix your upstream engineering process? What if the fastest way to fix product launch delays is to fix design review.

90% of companies delay product launches due to late stage design changes

In a recent survey of 250 engineering leaders, 90% admitted to delaying some percentage of product launches due to late stage design changes. Meaning this isn’t just a problem at your company. It’s practically universal.

Let’s dig into some other telling results from the same survey:

• Engineering leaders believe 60% of all late stage design errors could be prevented with better design review. And that average only increases the larger the company.
• When asked what strategies would be most effective in preventing product development delays, 59% of engineering leaders believe a better tool for design review is the best strategy.
• 1 in 4 engineering leaders believe the #1 predictor of on-time delivery is design review quality (process) – a leading indicator that surpassed even resource management (people).

So, engineering leaders reveal some important trends. Better design review would solve the problem causing most product launch delays. Better design review needs to be done with a better tool than what’s used today. And finally, process, not people, is the #1 predictor of on-time NPD project delivery.

Yet, the most common reaction to mandates requiring engineering teams to launch products faster is: hire more people.

And the reason is not because engineering leaders think this is the best solution. It’s because they don’t know a tool or process that will reliably solve design review challenges in a reasonable timeframe.

Let’s change that.

Better processes start with better tools

During product development, engineers have CAD for product design and PLM for product data and record-keeping.

But, when it comes to interacting with people during product development– nothing. Or rather, no dedicated system. So teams lean on meetings, emails, spreadsheets and PowerPoint to conduct and track design reviews.

Instead what teams need is a purpose-built tool for bringing people and data together during design review.

That tool is a Design Engagement System, or DES.

A DES does two essential things that engineering leaders need to help their teams launch products faster:

• A DES gives engineering teams a single place to facilitate and track design reviews and design decision-making.
• A DES addresses the gaps in current design review process as a byproduct of using the tool.

The best engineering teams launch products faster with a DES

Let’s do a quick recap. Companies need engineering teams to launch products faster. Despite knowing better tools and processes would fix product launch delays, engineering leaders fall back on throwing talent resources at the problem. Why? Because they believe there isn’t a tool that can solve this problem in a reasonable timeframe.The trouble with this kind of thinking is two-fold:

• It’s self-fulfilling. This kind of circular thinking is what keeps teams from questioning the way they’ve always done it. “Sure a better process or a better tool would work. But that’s risky. And it would take too long to implement.” When you keep thinking this way, it becomes truth.
• It forces engineering leaders to solve big problems with stopgap solutions. Hiring more engineers might solve the problem today or even for the next 12 months, but won’t solve the root cause issue.

Companies like Ford, Komatsu, Schaeffler and Schneider Electric use a DES as their better tool for design reviews. And therefore, use a DES as their better tool for launching products on time.

And the results speak for themselves. These same companies:

• Reduced lead times by 30%
• Lowered Non-Quality Cost by 15% in the first year
• Increased new customer acquisition and customer satisfaction