Managing Customers’ Dreams
May 17th, 2010 | By Gene A. Wright | Category: Feature, New Product Management, Operations ManagementFrom Managing Automation Blog — Chris Chiappinelli
This blog post plus video sums up the business challenges and requirements of the design-build (Continuous Product Development) business for industrial automation well. http://www.enhancedautomation.com
A focus on the customer requires a focus on quality, cost, specification and reality; often many of these concepts clash.
Are there other challenges?
I agree with this article. Although I believe creativity is one of my strengths, reality and practicality can always come back to slap you in the face. One of the advantages a job & design shop could develop is an ability to take customer’s creative ideas and retain the essence of these while making them work on a time, quality, and cost efficient scale. I have worked with engineers and they are not always the most practical people. (spec’ing in a military part from a 1946 print, or drawing a cable tie in CAD when you could pick one of hundreds out of a catalog…) Those job shops that are experienced in creating realistic solutions to creative explosions surely will have a competitive advantage.
In terms of managing creativity, I think good leadership and organization is key. A leader that can take a brainstorming session and keep it on a productive track while still harboring valuable ideas is going to succeed.
It is very true that he stated that his people are his best asset. That statement is often forgotten by employers. In an age where job security is non-existent, he strives to keep his well trained staff employed. The second major point was that he mentioned is to have a working agreement with the customer. He mentioned about not wanting to end up five times over budget at the end of the job. I believe that every customer is a partner to the business and vice-versa. The business knows what they are capable of and if they are up front with the customer, then it limits the unexpected problems that arise during the production process
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I agree with john. Often it is the wet wear that gets forgoten. People are the ones who started all of these companies and gave us all of these inovations. We need to keep the people who make us proffitable and try not to depreciate them in the finances as quickly. I think that moves into the managing of the creativity well.
Consumers will dream of products that they would want to purchase, businesses need to stay one step ahead of those dreams. A good example of this situation is the Toyota safety recalls that happened recently. As soon as that happened, other car companies knew what their costumers would be asking for, so they started advertising before the question was even asked of them. An emotional aspect was drawn in for recruiting business. “My car saved my life, I’ll never forget that,” was a similar theme one company used to draw new buyers. By creating new features that fit within the budget and will appeal to your costumers, will lessen wants and demands of new customers because they will be distracted by the interesting new features you have to offer. Staying one step ahead of the game, allows companies to work within budgets, and create competitors from other companies.
The art of designing, manufacturing and delivering a product as noted in the artcle to a tight timeline and within budget, forces manufacturing firms to seek out technlogies that will reduce design and manufacturing time. Communications with the customer throughout the design and manufacturing stages delivering detailed scopes and designs will limit the customer from expecting a design that exceeds the original scope. Firms when designing specifically new products, must be concious of the check and balances “Stage-Gate processes” to ensure engineering designs meet customer expectations while manufacturing timelines are met.
As an industrial designer, creativity is my main skill-set. While the design process is cyclical and is never considered finished (you can always continue to make improvements and iterations, if there is no budget) I do not understand why the author focuses on creativity running amuck. Other areas can get out of control. In my experience creativity can get out of control when the process is not managed or the initial problem is not clearly defined.
Watching the interview and hearing his comments it’s reminicent of the age old struggle between marketing and R&D. Understanding when you need to stop from a creative perspecitve and setting realistic goals for quality, price, and timing are issues I struggle with everyday in dealing with our marketing department. Of course, this is not to say that R&D always knows when to say when (ask any of our vendors)…
I agree with John and Sean, people are your best resource in creating a customers’ dream product at a reasonable price and timeline. Having people who know the limitations of design and equipment used to make a customers design meet with the customer in the planning stages will help establish a budget and timeline for the project. Having the right people meet with the customers is key to coming up with a reasonable plan to make any design a reality.
Manufacturing to the customers needs can lead to uncontrollable amount of creativity both on the part of the customer and the vendor. One method that was successful with a previous company that I worked with was to implement a frozen geometry date in which no further modifications could be made to the design whether by the customer or by us, the manufacturer. Solidifying a date meant that any changes made after that date would impact the tight budget and tight scheduling. In most cases, the creativity of the designers was curbed knowing that money and time could be associated with each change. The question of whether this type of procedure is appropriate should be communicated with the customer up front to ensure that there are no misleading thoughts. I liked the quote in the video that stated “customers bring us their dreams and we make them reality”. What a powerful slogan for a company.
How much controll can a manufacturer really give to a customer creating the team? It seems to me that customers are not very good at freezing scope (I am in a service organization within my company and this is fact for me) thus affecting both budget and timing. Creativity is required to gain advantage but so is making something and doing so affordably. Like nbriggs (above) i too like the slogan of the company. I wish I had the luxury to alloy my customers to make unlimited design decisions without care to budget and timing.
I agree with the article and the statements made by Dave. For any organization, people are its most valuable assets. When delivering creative products and solutions, companies need to make sure they establish and manage customer expectations effectively. I found it interesting that Dave stated you need to manage creativity carefully and understand when to stop. I had never really thought about it much until now. But it makes sense when you are delivering solutions to customers. You need to make sure you manage creativity within a specified cost structure or associated costs with creativity can balloon quickly. In addition, forcing cost structure constraints for solutions can help foster even greater creative thinking and innovation to ensure the end product is delivered within the cost structure constraints.
I think another challenge is knowing your own capabilities. In the development scenarios described, the balance of meeting the customers requirements and staying within budget don’t allow for significant time spent learning new disciplines. Many companies, especially in times like the current may take on projects that they wouldn’t have otherwise.
Two things cought my attention in the interview. The first one being that knowledge from his employees are the company’s best asset and that at times creativity needs to be stopped in order to meet the customers dream. The second one being that the company works as a team with the customer to create a product that will meet/exceed their dream. Having the skilled employees (creative employees) work with the customer is what will make the overall experience outstanding. Not only will the costumer be heard but will also be offered better solutions.
Customer management is critical to all businesses because if you have no customers, you have no business. Juggling quality, cost, specifications, and time is the art of all good managers, and good managers are not born… they learned through mistake-filled experiences.