---

Success Stories

---

Scrum for Hardware Development - Schier Products

Problem:

Schier's previous product development process used a stage gate approach. It was very linear and bogged down more often than not. In fact, one new product took two-to-three years to develop! Their goal was develop a Scrum process they could consistently use to accelerate their speed-to-market timelines for new hardware products.

Solution/Benefit:

Kent Business Solutions performed research on best practices for Scrum in order to adapt Agile software development principles for hardware development purposes. Once that was complete, we provided Scrum training to the team, facilitated a Kaizen to develop the process, and implemented the process. We also provided Scrum Master services to facilitate the implementation process.

---

Results include:

• Development and implementation required less than 60 days.
• New process increased product speed-to-market by over 100% for ONE product (original goal)
• Launched five other component systems that fit across their whole product line (not originally planned)
• Significantly reduced product development costs
• Two new Scrum teams were launched within one month of first project completion with plans to implement Scrum across their whole company
  

---

Voice of the Customer (VOC) - Milbank Manufacturing

Problem:

Milbank didn't have a standard process to gather customer requirements to ensure these requirements were met.   They needed a systematic approach to ensure they consistently provided the best products and services to their customers through continual monitoring of customer needs.

Solution/Benefit:

Kent Business Solutions led a cross-functional team of Milbank employees to develop a Voice of the Customer (VOC) process for NPD Product Development (NPD) and product improvement purposes. 

Results include:

• Milbank now has a comprehensive, but easy-to-use VOC process. All customer-facing employees now have at their fingertips a standard approach to capture customer feedback so that it can be consistently incorporated into their NPD and product improvement efforts. 

• Process includes multiple plug-and-play VOC models and associated forms/tools that can be used in various situations: customer visits, workshops, job site visits, and email/phone surveys.
  
• First VOC event held in a foreign country resulted in a new product with improved safety features and a revenue increase of over 40%.
  

• Launch of this new product has also created a lucrative new market in another country with projected sales totaling millions of dollars of new revenue.
  

---

Voice of the Customer (VOC) - Fortune 100 Company

Problem:

This company's five-year old VOC process was outdated. Customers were complaining that they were being interviewed too frequently and metric results to measure performance were artificially high. The culture of the VOC Process Team was status quo as well and needed to be shaken up a bit.

Solution/Benefit:

Drove VOC Process Team through two process improvement cycles in one year resulting in a simplified, streamlined process.

• Transformed a status quo team culture to a results-driven focus. 
• Chartered focus groups to determine improvement needs. 

The team delivered:

• An interview scheduling subprocess that ensured customers were interviewed less frequently.
• A robust process and corresponding metrics that more accurately portrayed Customer Experience (CX) levels. 
  

---

Sales Capture Process - Fortune 100 Company

Problem:

Sales staff were pursuing unsuitable, low-dollar volume opportunities based on "gut-level instinct," so capture-dollar volumes were much too low.  Senior Leadership began to set the bar higher in terms of sales goals as well.  

Solution/Benefit:

We facilitated a team to develop a sales capture process to address these problems.

• Implementation of the new process contributed towards achieving a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of +10% for eight years, which equated to ~$220M.

• This Business Capture Process was highlighted in in a winning Malcolm Baldrige application for the company and was nationally recognized as best-in-class in their industry space.

---

White Paper Process - Fortune 100 Company

Problem:

This company didn't have a standard process for the development of white papers or proposals, and Senior Leadership had recently launched a new thrust to respond to U.S. Government business opportunities on a more regular basis. Previous attempts at submitting responses to the Government had met with limited success as well; in fact, one white paper response was soundly rejected by one Federal Agency because it was so poorly put together.

Solution/Benefit:

Kathy led a team to create a process that allowed for creation of multiple, simultaneous white paper/proposal submission. Results include:

• New methodology improved document production efficiency ten-fold over previous paper/proposal requests.
• This company garnered three wins and millions of dollars of new business over two years for two unsolicited* white papers and one unsolicited proposal.*
  
• This process was developed on-the-fly when Kathy coordinated a team to develop 10 white papers within a period of three weeks in response to a major U.S. Government agency’s request. This fledgling process helped ensure submissions met the deadline.
• Results from this paper call involved the acceptance of nine papers for wider distribution within the U.S. Government. 

* "Unsolicited" opportunities were discovered through targeted data mining of the SAM.gov website, the U.S. Government's primary website for posting Federal business opportunities.

---

Tailorable Quality Plans - Fortune 100 Company

Problem:

The Tailorable Quality Plan project was launched due to customers complaining about paying too much for the only option they offered at the time...top notch quality on all products. 

Solution/Benefit:

Kathy led a team that:

• Developed a framework for determining the appropriate quality levels for various manufacturing products. 
• Developed requirements for a tool that allowed for tailoring quality, based on predetermined customer quality needs.  

   Results included:

• A robust software tool that has been in use for close to 10 years.
  
• More satisfied customers and greater ease in determining customer requirements, especially in the quality arena.

---