Introducing efficient series start-ups

Benefits through optimization of series start-ups

By optimizing series start-up management, you ensure your competitiveness by efficiently bringing new products to market in the right quality. This increases customer satisfaction. At the same time, you create lean internal processes and thus save costs. A robust series start-up also leads to greater planning reliability in subsequent series production and thus calms your day-to-day operations. For these reasons, you should not neglect the optimization of your series start-up in addition to ongoing production.

Procedure and central questions

With new products, many parameters on the product and in the process are usually undefined at the start. Systematic series start-up management is required in order to define these parameters as efficiently as possible. Targeted cross-departmental cooperation is particularly important here. In the following, I will give you ideas on how you can establish systematic and successful series start-up management in order to introduce and manage your series start-ups efficiently and effectively.

In our experience, the following four overarching steps or building blocks should be considered when optimizing series start-up management:

1. Start-up strategy: Clarification of objectives, benefits and current framework conditions
2. Start-up planning: development of a series start-up process with defined maturity gates
3. Start-up control: Introduction of control elements to operationalize the series start-up process
4. Start-up organization: Establishment of a start-up organization with clear tasks and areas of responsibility

The following figure summarizes the central questions that should be answered within the four steps or building blocks when developing successful series start-up management.

1. start-up strategy: clarification of the objectives, benefits and current framework conditions

The first step is to take your time. Reflect on and define why you want to optimize the start of series production in your company and what benefits are associated with an optimized start of series production. This will help you to derive a vision and later convince other stakeholders, both in management and in the project team. Ideally, you should develop the vision in an initial joint goals workshop with the project team.

First, think about the overarching goal you want to achieve in the series start-up and clarify the initial framework conditions.

Dominik Fackler, Senior Consultant

Once you have an initial vision for the future start of series production, the next step is to define the initial framework conditions. The overarching questions that are important for the project content and structure are relevant here:

• For which brands and product groups should the start of series production be optimized? Which development and production sites are affected?
• Who are the stakeholders in the project, who is the affected user?
• What is the effort and complexity involved in the ramp-up of the selected product groups? For example, is it possible and sensible to categorize the start-up projects according to effort?
• What processes already exist in series start-up management? What processes and milestones are there in the neighboring product development process?
• What is the current schedule in the product development process and the start of series production? Therefore: Which dates are fixed and which can be changed? For example, are there fixed release dates for products that you cannot postpone by yourself?
• When is a new product generally ready for series production?

Once you have clarified these questions together, you have set the first cornerstones for optimizing your series start-up management. On this basis, you can move on to the next step of planning the future start of series production.

2. ramp-up planning: development of a process for series ramp-ups with defined maturity gates

In ramp-up planning, you develop a framework for series ramp-up management. In doing so, you create the basis for the organizational process and thus the foundation for start-up control.

Create a framework – define milestones, sample phases, quantities and maturity gates.

Dominik Fackler, Senior Consultant

Based on the current processes in your series start-up and the neighboring product development process, this phase involves defining milestones, sample phases, quantities and maturity gates in particular:

• Milestones: Which milestones and deadlines must be met in order to achieve series production readiness at a defined point in time? Backward scheduling based on the final milestone is recommended. It is also important to synchronize this planning with the product development process.
• Sample phases: Which sample series (pre-series, pilot series, etc.) are required and what timeline is needed for each phase? Typically, prototypes are produced with test tools in the pilot series. In the pilot series, the final series maturity is produced using the series tools.
• Quantities: What quantities do you estimate to achieve the defined milestones of the sample series? It is advisable to make an initial estimate here and then adjust the quantities based on initial experience.
• Maturity level gates: Which documents and planning parameters must have a “certain maturity” for the milestones? At which points in the process do maturity gates make sense?

The framework is in place, but how do you go about operationalizing the developed series start-up process in the future? This is the focus of start-up control planning.

3. start-up control: Establish maturity level controlling and advance quality planning

During the start of series production, defined characteristics must be defined for both the product and the process so that series production can be carried out as efficiently and effectively as possible. It is important that you systematically record the product and process characteristics and continuously check their level of maturity. In addition, there are overarching documents, such as the work plan, which also becomes more concrete over time.

Measure the progress of your new product launch with maturity level controlling.

Dominik Fackler, Senior Consultant

In order to continuously monitor progress during a start-up project and to maintain an overview and foresight, we recommend the use of maturity level controlling. In this, you repeatedly evaluate the ramp-up in the team according to defined maturity level criteria for the maturity level gates you have defined. For each gate, you define target expected values and compare these with the actual assessments. If there is a negative deviation – i.e. if the ACTUAL value is below the expected TARGET value – you can directly derive measures to make up for this deviation. From a project management perspective, the maturity level controlling tool helps you to maintain an overall view and set the right priorities during the entire start of series production. Figure 3 shows schematically how you can use maturity controlling to develop the product and the process through the maturity levels to full maturity.

With maturity level controlling, you create a comprehensive, continuous assurance of results in the series start-up. The focus is on aggregated results documents from the process areas and quality management as well as holistic views of the test results. Ideally, these are prepared by the departments for a rolling meeting in such a way that the right decisions can be made right on schedule in order to achieve full series maturity.

You determine which characteristics you check during pre-series and pilot series production and how you proceed in this process in the advance quality planning.

Advance quality planning

Which inspection characteristics you should check during the start-up process depends primarily on the “critical dimensions” of the product. Critical dimensions are dimensions that have a significant influence on the end product with regard to the main functions and requirements. Your definition, including tolerances, should be established at the start of the pre-series. On the process side, you should also have already defined the process steps. The aim is now to create processes that are as robust as possible via the pre-series and pilot series so that high quantities can be reproduced in series production from the start of production (SOP) according to defined target times and with a high quality rate.

Advance quality planning allows you to continuously and systematically develop the process capability of critical processes. The focus here is on the following steps, which, with the exception of steps one and two, must be run through on a rolling basis via the sample phases:

Process steps in advance quality planning

1. Create test drawings
2. Develop a process control plan (Control Plan)
3. Create test plan for each process
4. Testing and recording test results
5. Evaluate test data
6. Update process control plan, record measures in the response plan

The process control plan is the central document for comprehensive advance quality planning. It records which product and process characteristics are measured at which process step and how. Measures are also stored directly in the reaction plan. You can find out how to create and structure a process control plan in this article. You will also find a template of what a control plan can look like so that you can get started right away without much effort.

There are numerous CAQ software providers on the market for the overall process of advance quality planning, which map the process with system support. Providers of CAQ solutions include Babtec and iqs. Whether CAQ software makes sense for you depends on the number and complexity of your series start-ups. We therefore recommend starting with a conceptual design of your series production start-up process and checking in parallel whether the introduction of CAQ software is worthwhile.

By using advance quality planning as a tool, you can consistently check the right product and process characteristics and make adjustments based on the data. This allows you to safeguard your series production launch at quality level.

4. start-up organization: establishment of clear tasks and areas of responsibility

A lot of information from different departments is relevant during a series ramp-up. To ensure that no important information is lost at the interfaces and that you always act in a targeted manner in a start-up project, it is important to establish a so-called start-up manager. The ramp-up manager has an overall view of the ramp-up project at all times and the priorities regarding the achievement of series maturity via maturity level controlling. It is important that the start-up manager’s responsibility does not end with the SOP, but only when the product has reached the “defined series maturity”. If this is not achieved at the desired point in time, the start of production (SOP), the manager is still responsible for ensuring that the product is fully ready for series production

As a start-up manager, take the new product from prototype to series production!

Dominik Fackler, Senior Consultant

As shown in Figure 4, the ramp-up manager is responsible for the cross-functional planning, management and control of the series ramp-up. Depending on the number and complexity of series ramp-ups in your company, it makes sense to establish several ramp-up managers, for example by brand or product group. The ramp-up manager works closely with the ramp-up team, which coordinates the operational implementation of the series ramp-up. With a start-up manager who has the appropriate authority in your organizational structure and a well-functioning team, you are very well positioned to take the product from prototype to series production.

Summary

By systematically structuring your series start-up, introducing appropriate control tools and a value-oriented start-up organization, you can establish an efficient and effective series start-up with simple steps. This has a direct positive effect on customer satisfaction, the internal cost structure and planning reliability in your company – and thus creates concrete and measurable added value in your organization.