Client
Credence Systems Corporation designs test equipment for the semiconductor industry.
Situation
Credence designs complex, technically demanding test systems. The design team for the next generation product was experiencing high levels of bugs on first article prototypes, causing expensive rework and schedule slips. Reducing the number of design escapes was imperative in order to meet R&D budget constraints and strict time to market requirements.
Solution
I identified the factors that contributed most to design escapes by conducting extensive interviews with key team members and internal customers, then I pinpointed relevant industry best practices using internal expertise and published research.
Armed with information from the interviews and research, I designed custom training using the case method. During this training, the design team analyzed how real companies handled similar problems. Then I facilitated a process improvement session where they learned how to analyze their existing process and design a new one. The team identified improvements that customized the best practices to their unique situation.
Result
The design team improved their design capabilities in a way that fit their and unique needs. Buy-in was strong because they designed the improvements themselves, rather than importing someone else’s approach.