People-Centric Operational Excellence in Product Management for Small-Medium Manufacturing

Within small-medium sized niche manufacturing environments, project and product management structures that are commonplace in larger businesses are rare, causing disorganization. This disorganization is unreliable and increases stress on labor and professionals alike, limits capacity and improvement, and requires more resource allocation to accomplish tasks. In the business environment of manufacturing industries, project management is vital to driving and delivering value to the organization and its stakeholders. After a project is completed and begins to be manufactured, it becomes a product that exceeds the life cycle of the project it was once part of, and a team is set up to oversee the product management endeavor. However, the product may need to be overhauled, causing a new project to be set in motion by the product manager. This case study reviews a people-centric operational excellence (PCOEx) model to combat long lead times, high employee stress and reduce costs associated with product management operations, especially related to the research and development process. Entitled as the Sawhney model, this systems-thinking approach comprises four distinct modules, including a robust problem identification process, a hierarchical performance measurement system, a reliability-based platform, and a sustainability risk assessment, which focus is to improve company's performance while enhancing employees' quality of life. Reliability, retention, and human factor issues engendered by modern industry implored the implementation of the Sawhney model and proved to enhance the lead times of a new product engineering group while simultaneously decreasing their effort and stress levels.