Right from the beginning of obsolescence management, we are advised to regard each product on a standalone basis and focus on the technology when determining its potential obsolescence risk. We then go through a series of process steps by firstly looking at components and then identifying tools to help understand risk and finally applying processes to manage systems.
In order to develop our obsolescence management understanding further, we need to retain the micro view at the project level, but also consider the macro level, i.e. looking at the design and manufacturing process and the infrastructure that was in place throughout the design stages. Often when OEMs start the support stages of major programmes, they find that design tools or key resources to assess risk or undertake redesign tasks have not been accounted for, and therefore significant unplanned costs arise.
We need to consider the project not merely as a collection of technical achievements, but also in a less tangible way - as a realisation of a design concept. Therefore, it is important to be mindful of the design period in order to understand the culture and thinking that existed at the time of its creation.
We will continue to experience some random risks, e.g. those based on business continuity and commercial global economic impacts. However, there is an opportunity to reduce uncertainties within our own businesses. For many organisations the obsolescence team is seen as an ‘insurance policy'. Therefore the ambition is to ‘insure' more of the risk. How can we reduce the uncertainties that we currently do not take account of?
One example would be effective archiving of legacy programmes. This is very important and care needs to be taken to locate and save items such as log books, specifications, technical manuals and repair processes. These may have been archived effectively and indexed appropriately, but all too often the archiving consists of simply filling a cardboard box with perceived useful information, resulting in some useful material being overlooked. Within the lifecycle transition from manufacturing to support there needs to be priority and funding given to assembling and cataloguing this wealth of information.
Choosing the right person to undertake this task is essential, although they need not necessarily be a former project team member. A project is a living thing for its design duration and can have a documented life of many years in the manufacturing and support periods. To use a football analogy: 'We must ensure that we appreciate the whole team in the performance, not just those on the pitch'. Those on the pitch represent the funded project team and those behind the scenes represent the specialists and key resources employed on request. It is recommended that individuals prepare a history of personal and project events that might highlight the key skills and dependencies that have been useful in the past.
To be successful with new contracts requires a broad, all-inclusive experience and networked capability. The assessment of potential obsolescence management costs needs to move from programme costs to business costs. By that I mean: what are the implications for the business rather than any specific programme? The failure to retain a specific skill or equipment could affect many opportunities and be very costly to overcome. Any outsourced effort will almost certainly be at a premium cost that will ultimately affect profit.
However, building a team for the long-term and protecting key skills as part of a dedicated support structure is not natural for businesses used to allocating resource based on specific design contracts, and the increased cost for retaining skills may be significant. It may also be hard to value the benefit across multiple programmes. However the cost avoidance when confronted by an issue requiring a particular skill that has been retained could be very large. So, some businesses retain skills as a pool of resource shared between many sites. This can be very cost-effective. Organisations that have done this successfully have grown into strong maintenance and support entities and have sometimes taken on the support of products not originally designed or built by them.
Any analysis needs to cover the engineering & design project team and support from technical specialists, as well as test engineering and manufacturing. Companies are finding that the increased emphasis on support and life extension requires a mixed age range, ideally team members with an awareness of the latest technology and skills together with mature staff with awareness of legacy skills. This ensures that the best business tools available, either from legacy or modern business systems, can be used to resolve technical problems. Temporarily re-employing recent retirees may also be appropriate. This requires the ability to recognise speciality and flexibility across programmes and sites, and to establish processes that enable this to succeed.
As part of the continued development of staff, a matrix of key engineering as well as other skills needs to be undertaken. Each person's skill profile needs to be recorded, maintained and made available for regular update and with limited management moderation. The data can then be accessed by programme managers and bid managers for example, to identify suitable resources for a specific requirement. These skills could include international languages and other business skills that are often outsourced. In addition, mentoring and shadowing are increasingly being used to transfer skills between individuals.
It may also be possible to offer flexible working and extending contracts beyond traditional retirement expectations as alternative paths to retain key skills. The consequences if you do not manage these identifiable costs include, but are not limited to: uncertain delivery delays; significant increases in programme cost; contractual penalties; commercial loss of reputation; re-engaging the retired expert who may be costly and less flexible than you would like.
It's certainly not an insurmountable issue, and any organisation with good project management skills will be able to mitigate the risk of losing people skills.
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