One customer need, met with far too many parts.
One customer need, far too many parts.
A product division at a global Swedish high-tech company, with more than 10,000 employees, faced a market where cost, product variation and lead time had all become critical. Every customer asked for unique specifications, which multiplied product variants and the development each one required.
Underneath the variety the customer needs were largely the same, sharing a common system architecture, but the non-systematic process turned that shared ground into long lead times and high cost.
We modularised the platform, and the organisation around it.
A pre-study identified the opportunity for a modular platform. We ran Principlay workshops to build a shared understanding of modularisation, then analysed current and future customer demand across both development and market functions and modularised one sub-system as a worked example.
From there we reorganised the development department around the modular platform, introduced new development, test and verification processes, and reshaped manufacturing into unified production lines.
The same need, met with a third of the parts.
The same customer need was met using one third of the original number of parts. The company won an important deal by delivering faster than its competitors, and the modular way of thinking took hold across the organisation, reaching well beyond development.
“[client quote - to be supplied]”
The work behind this case.
Modularisation
Bringing structure to products so variety stops eroding margin.
See service → MethodPrinciplay
A simulation where teams experience a modular programme across the whole value chain.
See method →More cases
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Margins eroding as product and order complexity grew.
A stalled Lean programme, stuck inside manufacturing.
