Digital Talk | The Lean R&D area. The experience of FIAMM Energy Technology

The design and implementation of a product on a customer order often represents a challenge not only from a technical point of view, but also from a logistical-organizational perspective.
Frequently encountered issues are:

• Lack of standard times
• One-size-fits-all: the process, formalized or not, does not take into account the different 'weight' of orders
• Absence of KPIs
• Vertical optimization (departmental, local optics) vs. Horizontal optimization (cross-sectional, customer perspective)
• Commercial Area ("If I sell it, it is feasible.") vs. Technical Area ("If it is feasible I will sell it.").

The improvement of job development processes can be achieved through a structured pathway Lean World Class®.

From the living voice of the protagonists of FIAMM Energy Technology, a multinational company engaged in the production and distribution of accumulators for automotive starting and industrial use milestones and achievements of the Lean project in the R&D area with a focus on workload balancing will be shared:

• Raimondo Hippoliti, Chief Technology Officer | FIAMM Energy Technology
• Silvia Cazzanti, Innovation and Product Development Manager | FIAMM Energy Technology
• Andrea Bozzoli, Senior Consultant | Bonfiglioli Consulting
• Paul Campsites, Business Development Manager | Bonfiglioli Consulting

The stages of the Project:

• Introduction of a Visual management system in the R&D laboratory To continuously monitor, plan and verify the availability of electrical equipment/circuits
• Creation of Dashboard with key KPIs and project information
• Definition and constant updating of the new product development procedures
• Launching a Projects & Workforce Management System with a Workload List (Database) of tasks to be done, with deadlines, responsibilities, estimated workloads for each task + other information) integrated with Project Books

Objectives achieved:

• Increased punctuality project closure
• Reducing Time-to-Market
• Greater awareness of the workload of the Teams, to support choices on project priorities or organizational developments
• Major involvement and motivation of Working Teams