The best processes only work if they are actually implemented within the organisation. Our customer, an automotive supplier, approached us with precisely this challenge.

Structural change for greater project success

New structure and project organisation
for more efficient product development and better teamwork

The company

Our client is a development partner and series supplier for chassis technology components in automotive engineering with locations in Germany, China, Poland, India and Mexico. The products offered mainly include chassis components. The company has a turnover of approximately 170 million euros and employs around 1,500 people worldwide.

The challenge

The company wanted to change its organisational structure and project organisation and processes in product development in order to work more efficiently and better meet customer requirements.

The approach

We supported our customer for over a year in optimising its organisational structure, product development process and project management. The analysis and design took about one month, while the piloting and implementation took 11 months.

After a short analysis and design phase, in which the new departments, project management and project controlling were defined, the ongoing customer projects were converted to the new project structure and PEP. For the conversion, basic training courses were first held, followed by project-specific workshops with the project core team. In these workshops, the project team worked out the objectives, schedule and effort planning, and project risks, among other things.

Further project work was continuously supervised and improved through participation in regular meetings. The focus was on cross-departmental cooperation. The project client and the installed steering committee received status reports from the respective project manager on technology, quality, deadlines, project and product costs in gate reviews and regular meetings.

The previously defined project roles were already being actively implemented by the end of the project. In addition, continuous controlling promoted a cultural shift towards a stronger performance orientation. Clarifying responsibilities and resources within the project helped to avoid energy loss through duplication of work and led to a sustainable increase in efficiency. Improved teamwork also led to better team results. Overall, our customer now completes projects much faster and with fewer resources.