Managing complexity and risk in development and production innovation
The DSMiSIG “DSM webinar series on complexity and risk in innovation” will run from May to end of June. If you are working in industry, join the DSMiSIG by visiting our forum on LinkedIn.
The DSM webinar series was created in 2013 to support industry participants interested in learning more about DSM methods and applications. Here are links to the webinars:
• Introduction MP4 WMV
1. The basics of DSM and its applications in industry and business (Tyson Browning) MP4 WMV MOV
2. Resolving product and system architecture complexity (Tyson Browning) MP4 WMV MOV
3. Resolving process complexity (Tyson Browning) MP4 WMV MOV
4. Resolving complexity in software architecture and design process (Frank Waldman) MP4 WMV MOV
5. Resolving the complexity of the confluence of product, process and organizational structures (Maik Maurer) MP4 WMV MOV
6. How to get started with DSM in your company and required processes and tools (Richard Paynting) MP4 WMV MOV
Question: What is the universal but yet unsolved problem in innovation?
Generally our success in our enterprise depends on our ability to consistently deliver the outputs of our innovation projects on time and on budget at a profit to the enterprise.
Outputs of our projects may be new products or services ready for rollout, a new software system, the change of a business operating or manufacturing project, a new organizational structure after a business merger or any other planned output of our project.
However, in reality it is not uncommon that our projects are between 10% and 100% over time and budget, and occasionally even more.
Why is it that in a little over a generation, manufacturing has managed to reduce its defect rate from about 1% to 10s of parts per million, a 500 to one improvement? Yet we routinely accept more than 90% defect in terms of variation from planned deliverables from our innovation processes? We can and should do better. Reducing cost and time overruns to half or a quarter of current levels would be a good place to start.
Question: Why are we not addressing the problem?
Is it because everyone is in the same boat and we are not worse than the competition, is it because we do not know the causes of our overruns and project delays and failures or is it because we do not have the tools to do it? In reality all three reasons are contributing to our projects being generally under-scoped, more complex than necessary and therefore late, costly and involve a lot of unnecessary rework somewhere down the line to the end user.
Solution: The routine use of DSM in innovation and business processes
A process exists for identifying and mitigating unnecessary complexity, unseen risks and for substantially improved project planning. The process has been used successfully in world-class organizations for the last two decades but is only now making its way into mainstream.
What does DSM do?
• It develops better project plans, product architectures and manufacturing and business operating processes
• It manages both the usual tangible project space, as well as making the likely 50% intangible and hidden issues visible.
• It systemically analyses program issues and optimizes integration across functional borders.
Why now?
• To date DSM has been predominantly used by large aerospace and automotive corporations, which have not published their DSM experiences as they consider them to be a source of competitive advantage. This has limited general awareness of the process and its benefits.
• Recently user friendly DSM s tools have become available, making it relatively easy for SMEs to optimize their innovation and general business processes.
• The DSM Industry Special Interest Group (DSMiSIG) is actively promoting the use of DSM.
The Design Structure Matrix (DSM) 