The Concept: An Innovative Approach
- The concept of External Simultaneous Engineering developed in Project SICPARI: To cut time-to-market in half, you need to organize communication
As Project SICPARI (Simultaneous engineering In Car Producing And Related Industries) impressively demonstrated, organizing the communication flow between departments and organizations has the potential of getting things done much faster: thanks to the results of SICPARI, new vehicles can be developed and brought to market in half the time.
During the last ten years, we have continued to develop this approach together with our industrial partners in order to make it usable in rough everyday life. The result is a complete package consisting of tested methodologies, simple-to-use software packages that work with the industry-standard IT systems, operating procedures to handle difficulties, as well as training and coaching modules to implement it all.
Defining People, Deliverables and Communication
- Organizing the 5 W's of Communication in the Communigram
As with any really great innovation, the basic idea behind Communigram is quite simple: draw a diagram what needs to be done to reach the goals of the organization - and then make it happen.
In the Communigram, we define what we call the 5 W's of Communication:
- Who ...
- needs to communicate with Who ...
- to produce Which information ...
- to Whom is this information communicated ...
- and by When must this information be available?
By using the methodology and the software tools, people are assisted to be very precise. With the Communigram to guide them, people express what needs to be done very clearly in terms of clear-cut deliverables. Similarly, Communigram invites them to define exactly which people in which departments need to produce the deliverable, and downright obliges them to define a single leader for each deliverable. Finally, the communication flow is defined as the transfer of deliverables from one leader to another.
Using simple rules and intuitive software tools, three very fundamental management principles are quickly and effectively put into action: Management by Objectives, Management by Delegation, and Client-Supplier Relationships.
Making the Communigram Come Alive
Once the deliverables, responsibilities and flows have been defined in the Communigram, the "5 W's" come to life. Each person involved in the communication flow now not only knows what to do, but also what the expected outcome is, who will help produce that outcome, and to whom the outcome needs to be transferred once finished. A series of rules and procedures ensure that the creation of the deliverables happens swiftly and efficiently, that arising difficulties are communicated immediately to superiors and concerned clients, that they are treated effectively, and that finished deliverables are validated and used promptly.
Of course, this is also where the Communigram software tools are of great use. Embedded in industry standard IT systems, they not only calculate when each deliverable will become available, they also ensure that each person receives their personal "myCommunigram", a constantly updated ToDo-List that includes all relative documentation right next to the description of each expected deliverable, and many more functions that make the communication flow come alive.