Do you know this situation? An engineering manager comes out of a meeting with the operation manager. They just realized that the new product fails in operations. What a mess. It will be a serious threat to the company if the product is not ready for the industry fair in three months. As the engineering manager pass through assembly, he meets his best designer. She is the one that are able to solve the problems. However, she is sitting in assembly documenting design changes on another delayed product.
What would your advice to the engineering manager be?
On short term, the engineering manager will have to take urgent actions. On long term, he and the operation manager could explore the challenges they have in their common product realization system. What are the challenges in workflow that are insufficiently supported in the organizational structure? What is lacking in the knowledge processes? And can development and operation collaborate on solving problems across functions?