Creating a matching WBS is one of the most important tasks in project management. It defines the project structure and the way we monitor our progress. The good news: in many situations you are not starting from scratch. There are older projects available for best practice, there is a line organization and specific know how. So the… Read More


Once the design is approved by the customer, all components of the production line have to be made available. There are two approaches for this: in house production or supplied by 3rd party. Usually it is a mix of both. Standard components like robots or welding guns will be supplied, individual components like a fixture… Read More


The main objective of the procurement phase is to select suitable turnkey suppliers for your production lines – within a given budget. Ideally they come with their own project management team and your role for the next few phases could be reduced to monitoring, coordination plus escalation and change management. Assigning all operations to a… Read More


The main objective of the design phase is to provide a detailed design of every component of the new production line. The initial 3D design provides the engineering base. Derived is a detailed parts breakdown for ordering, manufacturing and financial evaluation. A functional description of any movement and state is generated to start electrical design… Read More


Your project evolves almost as scheduled. You are set – awaiting a major decision of your client or board. This decision defines your next work packages – and it is delayed over and over again. Sounds familiar ?… Read More


Product and production development have to be in sync. Initially the product defines the production design, but further into the project maturity of the production design limits the flexibility. Late product changes may cause expensive production redesigns and may delay start of production. To avoid this there has to be a solid communication between both… Read More


Before you are able to deploy a production site, you need to have a clear understanding of the product and how it might be manufactured in mass production. An initial engineering phase is set to explore feasibility boundaries. Based on a preliminary product design the main objectives of the engineering phase are to validate the… Read More


engineering phase Implementing a new production line is different from standard projects in several ways. The most important difference: your projects’s framework is set from the beginning. You have a clear understanding of your budget and targets. You don’t talk about the IFs like in product development but about the HOWs. During the initial engineering… Read More


Recently a friend asked me for help: „We have to prepare a lot of documents for a customer over the next couple of months. We do some preparations, then the customer has to check and approve, we do some clean ups, fill in some details and hand it over to the project lead of the… Read More


Dear reader, This site is just starting and information for this topic still has to be created, which might take some time.… Read More