In the purchasing contract with a tier one supplier, the expected the “0-kilometer” quality or failure rate is not to exceed 500 parts per million (ppm).  These are failures seen before the product leaves the OEM manufacturing floor requiring product rework on the assembly line or as the vehicle rolled off the end of the […]

I am writing this post after a discussion with some people on product development and project management processes.  The discussion took a turn to process intensive approach or not to use a defined process.  There are many ideas of how this can work, for example the Capability Maturity Model Integration is an example of the […]

I recently noticed a LinkedIn post on success and failure that led me to the need to comment.  The quote from the article that gave me some consternation: The minute you have a back-up plan, you’ve admitted you’re not going to succeed. ~Elizabeth Holmes Theranos Founder & CEO When I am driving a car, I […]

This is the second part of our onboarding writing.  We have seen many opportunities for growth and development in this area. In fact, the onboarding process is where those who know little about us, how we work and what we value, are guided toward a fit in our organization.  Our candidate selection and vetting process […]

Onboarding Defined First, we should probably explain or define onboarding.  Onboarding is the collection of activities associated with our present staff socializing and training our newly acquired talent.  The older employees take time out of their day to demonstrate behaviors and pass on specific knowledge and skills. Onboarding New Hires Recently a person that I […]

The Emissions Tango There is so much to learn from this case for those who develop products for a living and automotive products in particular.  Understanding the impact of concept selection and testing of the product on the project’s success and product quality is important.  The early decisions we make regarding the development of the […]

We can use a decision matrix to help determine  the best test strategy.  In this instance, the decision matrix is comparing what we believe to be vehicle testing success criterion (such as the fidelity of the test results and ability to duplicate, the speed at which we can test and meeting critical dependencies) against a number of […]