Name: Sumukh Prakash Kane

ISE 544

Case Study 1

Spring 2017

USC ID: 2733952034

Due Date: 14th February,2017.

Mod IV Product Development team at Honeywell Buildings Controls division (BCD) is
working to design and introduce into the market a new motor that shall be of better in quality
as compared to their current models and at the same time this new model requires less time to
produce and is easier to market and shall thus maximise the profits of the company.

Mod IV is in the final phase of a three phase cost-reduction and quality improvement
initiative started in 1981.Mod IV is inspired by engineering and it promised the most
dramatic innovations in manufacturing and it was thus a very ambitious initiative that plans to
replace the products that comprise of more than 30% of the divisions profits.

In the product development system at Honeywell BCD, the new product passed through each
functional area in a sequence of discrete steps. The work done by one functional group was
thus devoid of any collaboration with other groups, this wasted a lot of time on account of the
product being passed back and forth within the groups as work done by one group at times
resulted in problems and difficulties for other groups to work on the project. This was also a
very costly method of product development which could be kept running when profit margins
were very high and there is virtually no competition in the market. However in the 1980’s the
number of competitor for Honeywell increased from 2-3 to around 150 and this increased
competition also put pressure on the company to introduce around 3-4 products in the market
every year as opposed to a period of 30 years previously. This required Honeywell to rethink
its product design philosophy in terms of cost cutting and speedy process for product
development. This was achieved by adopting a parallel development process for product
development. In this process all groups designated personnel to work on a project with other
groups and it made all groups work collectively on the project, this helped in reducing the
development time dramatically but there were still some problems persisting with this newly
adopted technique.

Mod IV was an anomaly in the sequential design process as it was started in Engineering by
Jay Elander rather than the marketing team.

The personnel involved in the Mod IV project are as follows:

 Linda Whitman-Director Marketing

 Dick Bahn-Product Manager (Marketing)
 Gordon Frayne-OEM Market Manager
 Phil Bohrer-Mod IV Project Manager (Marketing)
 Jack Scott-Program Manager(Manufacturing)
  Larry Rodgers-Mechanical Design Engineer(Engineering)
 Jay Elander-Senior Principal Engineer(Engineering)

Mod IV was in the developmental stage when the shift from sequential development process
to the parallel development process was implemented at BCD. This did not cause any
problems for the process and design Engineers as they were already working together.

In April 1989, the Mod IV project team was facing some problems, these problems and there
causes can be summarised as follows:

 The Product Development team was behind schedule. There was a problem with the
amount of noise the motors created. The noise created was much more than that is
usually expected and experienced from this type of motors and it was bound to cause
discomfort to the customers. The Engineering and Design teams were concentrating
on resolving this problem and not working on the next step in design and production.
 The Marketing group was not completely behind the project and it had some
reservations regarding the Mod IV project. They were uncomfortable with the Mod
IV project because :
 The Mod IV project was conceptualised by the Engineering team to reduce the
cost of Manufacturing and also to improve the quality of the product. However
there was no feedback from the market as the customers that used the older
products which Mod IV was going to replace hardly found any faults in the older
products and the Marketing group was therefore of the opinion that there was no
need to develop the Mod IV product.
 The reduced cost of Mod IV shall also reduce the price of the product and this
shall thus reduce the revenue. The Marketing group was largely concerned about
this aspect as the performance of the Marketing group is largely judged on the
revenue generated.
 The Marketing personnel were changed frequently during the tenure of the
project and thus every time the team dynamics changed there is bound to be a
change in opinion and perception about certain things that resulted in an overall
change in strategy and decision making by the Marketing team. This attracted
significant amount of animosity towards the marketing team and also resulted in
certain problems as discussed next
  The Marketing team was not totally transparent with the Engineering team
regarding the market behaviour and the needs due to the fear of being accused of
delaying the project. For example the control modules on the motors would make
the Mod IV quite attractive to customers, the marketing team was however not
pressing on their inception as this would have led to delays in the project
completion and they would have been responsible for this delay.

 Honeywell was a giant amongst a multitude of small companies that were trying to
make a name for themselves in the market, thus reducing Honeywell’s market shares
and profits.
 The delay in the production of Mod IV shall also cause the company to lose money
which will make it more susceptible for takeover. The company was in a tight spot as
it was losing money as profits were declining and other companies were looking to
take over. Mod IV was to be the company’s saving grace as its success would lead to
an increase in Honeywell’s share price.
 Another cause of the problem was the fact that the business plan for Mod IV was not
developed in detail and this caused problems in the interpretations of the business
plans.
 There was no clear Leader who shall be solely responsible for managing the entire
project. This resulted in a lack of communication and coordination, which in turn lead
to conflicts within the group.
 The project interim deadlines were also not setup, only individual deadlines were set-
up which resulted in cascading delays in the project time schedule.

The project team for engineering and manufacturing have been working well together and
supporting each other .The majority goals have been achieved and they have created a
synergy amongst themselves that has worked well for the teams up till now. However the
teamwork between the marketing and the other teams has been less than positive, although
marketing has not caused a major delay as of yet but they have been a cause of confrontation
and discontentment between team members. It has also resulted into extra burden on different
members and has made them question the Mod IV project.

To resolve the problems and to complete the project in time the management should first
assign a project leader to whom all groups shall report. He/she shall be responsible in
ensuring teams work properly so as to meet the set deadlines. I personally think that Ms.
Linda Whitman would be a suitable candidate for such a position as the primary
responsibility for profit and loss of Mod IV already rests with her. Her track record also
indicated that she is disciplined, motivated, result oriented and a well proven winner and she
understands the fact that she has to simultaneously work with the Engineering and
Manufacturing groups.

Once selected as the leader she should ask the respective groups for final deadlines and work
with them to finalise a timeline which shall enable the production of Mod IV in August
1989.If this is not feasible then she should ask the management to increase the production
deadline to one that the management and the teams can live with.

Another of her job shall be to reduce the conflict between marketing and engineering team by
assembling them at some place and explaining to them the concerns and trepidations
regarding Mod IV and how each team is working towards achieving the same common
shared goal of achieving maximum profits for the company in the shortest amount of time.
She shall also work as an intermediary between the teams taking information she deems
necessary from one team and give it to the other team with everyone’s knowledge that the
information has been passed on. This shall help in establishing a better flow of information
within various teams and shall also cement her relationship with various teams.

She should also set discrete project deadlines and have all teams adhere to them and make
sure they are followed. This deadlines should be realistic and should take into account the
priority of various tasks and the urgency of the project.

It is expected that if the Engineering team can overcome the noise problem and finish its
responsibilities on time then the Mod IV project could finish on time. The marketing group’s
necessity for control modules should also be incorporated into the moors at a later stage than
the initial product introduction as it is a real and essential demand of the customers and the
market in general.

Thus in order to run a big organisation with outcome based revenue you would have to put
together the best teams that you can. The highest priority will be project quality with team
members each doing their individual parts. Without communication, collaboration and
accommodation things can easily fall apart. Thus people must come and work together with
an open mind and problems shall get solved.