CASE:

The completion date was much further out on the second Gantt Chart than on the first one and the timeline was extended by a significant amount. Your boss suggested that first we need to fix the problem so it does not happen again and then accelerate what we can control on the schedule. "The Board of Directors is counting on us," he said.

The Operations Manager asked for all NPD Team members to come to his office NOW for an emergency meeting to address the following:

What went wrong in the process that allowed us to send a sub-standard product to the customer? You need to brainstorm and redesign the current process flowchart.

How can we make the actual design more robust so the wires cannot be plugged-in incorrectly?

Action Plan:

A revised third Gantt chart is required to illustrate a reasonable timeline to get to market within 6 months. "We must accelerate the process to make up for lost time. We may have to consider external joint ventures and alliances with outside resources. All ideas are welcome." Create a third Gantt chart that shows:

All process changes that affect ongoing activities to the end of the 2LOUD1000 project.

The compressed timeline to meet corporate objectives. Consider joint ventures and alliances to help reduce the timeline.

1. After the timeline has been compressed:

Confirm how many weeks it will take to complete the project?

What activities did you compress and why?

Gantt Chart:

Item	Activity	Duration (Weeks)	Predecessors
A	CFT is created for the New Product Dev't.	2	None
B	Equipment Order- New 3-D printer is ordered	8	None
C	Prototype- R&D produced prototype from outsouced 3-D parts	3	A
D	Sample to Customer- NPD Team Prototype is approved	1	C
E(1)	Approval - Customer Reject/disapproved prototype	3	D
E(2)	Re-approval- Customer approved prototype	3	D
F	Equipment Install - New 3-D printer is received and installed	3	B
G	Produce 20 - Manufacturing produces a small sample production	2	F
H	Specifications - R&D completes specificatios	3	E
I	Approval - Approves specifications and sample	3	G, H
J	Produce 200 - Manufacturing produces second, larger sample production	2	I
K	Quality Control - QC test and approves small production run	2	J
L	Process - Manufacturing finalizes process	3	K
M	Final Approval - Management approves product for regular production	2	I, K, L