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Engineering and Product Development Management: The Holistic Approach

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I read this book over the past few months and felt compelled to write a review. The book is very important to me. I have been managing and directing engineering and product development for years and I am a strong and experienced engineer. I have managed some fairly complex and challenging projects for electronic device companies. I realize now that some of these projects and products, while successful, required a lot of energy and effort to carry through. I also realize that I have tended to see these projects as largely "engineer-centered" projects without the needed holism. Further, I now realize that it takes a very special individual to really lead a project. In my case, it was the president of my company who intervened and really made the difference in the process. I understood subconsciously what he was doing. However, it was not until I read the book that I realized how really complex the process was and how the "engineering-centered" view was a potential weak spot in the process.

As part of the rejuvenation of our products, I launched the "new look" project as engineering manager. Early on, it was clear that the project had a lot of skepticism, factions, diverse opinions, and general resistance to change. As Stephen Armstrong suggests, change management is a very profound process to establish and maintain. He also implies that engineers may only focus on the linear and technical process and perhaps not grasp or control the other influences that can affect the success of true product development. In the case of Summit, the president joined the project team and participated actively in the meetings and the process because I think that he knew that this had to be a "holistic" process. This was critical because of the importance of the project to the company. Some team members at the meetings suggested that he was usurping my role as project leader. I was engineering manager and had assumed the role of "team leader" because traditionally product development was centered in engineering/R&D. What I experienced was a lot of resistance and resentment from other departments such as manufacturing, QA, and service. I realized that if the project were to succeed that I would need a strong mandate from the top and sustainable support from the corner office, along with much better teamwork. I did not resent the president's presence. Instead, I sensed that something good and interesting was happening. In retrospect, I now see that he (the president) wanted an integrated (holistic) solution and that there were forces and influences that only he could influence or control. The lesson to me was that thinking of the project only in a linear technical fashion, while important, was not the complete answer to getting things done in the needed time frame. The final project was not perfect in all respects. While we were able to keep development cost down, this did take more time because of the need to locate and coordinate contract resources and unexpected problems with certain key vendors. Also, we spent resources on a feature that was later decided to eliminate. Regardless, we did demonstrate to the marketplace that we had up-to-date technology and the commitment to support our products going forward.

A couple of other items
* Our president (COO) sent the whole company off to project management training. This was an important step because it provided a common agenda and dialog for the team and it showed the commitment of top management to success of the project and the product.

* The COO's time and availability became a problem because of business pressures. He did not abandon the project and appointed a second-in-command, a marketing director, to continue the day-to-day operations. The marketing director had sufficient communications skills, organizational clout, and the ability to stimulate teamwork that kept the process going. In fact, it was one of the best functioning teams because a workable process replaced the interdepartmental conflicts.

The COO was and is a smart, demanding, and a really good leader. What he did was to address the product development process in the holistic manner that Stephen describes. At times, I felt that my role as engineering manager was being affected by the President's intervention. The president was careful to get my agreement and he made a point of sitting beside me at meetings to lend support. I realize now that I could not have pulled off the project by myself. The engineering process alone had been tried twice before and had failed to produce results. It was an uphill struggle with a lot of technical challenges along with the project challengers. The political, organizational, etc. issues were too large and beyond the scope of my control. I am a good manager in the engineering process but not in the league of the president. So the purpose of the article is to point out the revelation that I had during the project and especially when I read the book.

Those who do not apply a holistic approach to product development are most likely old school executives/engineers (we've done it this way for 30 years) who are the blockers in the organization. The author describes in detail the tactics to deal with blockers. The blockers usually ignore the human issues and think a team is just a collection of people in a room.

The vision of engineering management presented by Stephen Armstrong is one that is both broad in its context and deep in its coverage. He offers the engineering project manager with a extensive set of management tools that, when used in total, will assure project success while improving overall project engineering effectiveness. Managers that employ this methodology will soon find this to be their indispensable desktop reference manual as the progress through the phases of product development.

The demands on the modern engineering manager are greater than they have ever been and the challenges to program success continue to grow exponentially. The rapid growth of technology has resulted in most of the products being developed by current and future companies - large and small - being inordinately complex systems of integrated technologies. This complexity is exacerbated by the complicated interdependencies among the technologies of the various product components. The availability of highly capable e-design, e-analysis, and e-prototyping tools and the growth in new methods that better integrate design and manufacturing are both wonderful benefits and potential burdens to the engineering teams using them. The move to virtual prototyping changes the planning and staffing profiles from that of the traditional project engineering organization. Added to these changes are the increasing demands for shorter and shorter engineering span times accompanied with further expectation that engineering costs must be reduced by factors of 30% to 50% for businesses to remain competitive, and in some cases these reductions are expected to be recurring. These factors bring additional uncertainties and risk to an activity that has traditionally been risky.

Given this backdrop, Stephen Armstrong urges us to view the engineering management problem from a different perspective than has been offered before. Engineering managers should adopt a total perspective of the problems that they have facing them.
While they divide the work along the logical lines of work breakdown, they must at the same time undertake the effort with the right tools and processes to assure success. At the core of these processes are the ones that provide a logical and systematic definition of work flow and that provide the mechanisms to control and manage risk. Since an engineering effort is simply the maturation of information, understanding the flow of information and the management of it is critical to success. We are also cautioned that the answers to good engineering management are more than just technical or administrative. The engineering manager must recognize that his primary resource is people and provide a human side to the management of engineering teams.

The managers that read this book will find the formula for the success of their projects. You will find as you read the pages of useful management methods that a pattern starts to unfold and the powerful concept of an integrated technical management will form. Your approach to successful engineering management will never be the same.

CAMC Book Review

Engineering and Product Development Management: The Holistic Approach, Stephen C. Armstrong, PEng, CEng, FIMechE, CMC; Cambridge University Press:2001. (248 pages, plus 77 pages of appendices; US$55.00, available through "Books for Business" and elsewhere.) Reviewed by Gus Gillespie, P Eng, FCMC.

One of the greatest challenges facing companies that develop, manufacture and sell complex products is bring their new offerings to market on time, on budget and as specified. In spite of its importance, and the great volume of material available on different aspects of the problem, there has been little practical guidance for managing the overall process. With this book, Stephen Armstrong has made a major contribution to closing this gap.
In this tightly crafted work, Mr. Armstrong presents his condensation of twenty years experience as an engineer, an engineering manager and a management consultant focused on bringing highly complex products to market as fast and effectively as possible. Much of his experience has been gained working with aircraft companies around the world. The products of these companies are among the most technically sophisticated and complex machines devised by man, and they are sold in a highly competitive global market. The costs of developing such products is staggering, and companies are literally "betting the farm" with every new product development project. There is no tolerance for errors, omissions or delays - development projects must succeed.
The solution offered by Mr. Armstrong is "a holistic approach": one that looks at all dimensions of the product development challenge and draws on a broad set of management disciplines to ensure the challenge is met. In the first section of his book, Mr. Armstrong sets the stage by concisely describing the holistic approach and the six bodies of knowledge needed to support it: Integrated Product Development, Project/Program Management, Process Management, Organizational Change/Political Management, Product Data Management and Systems Engineering.
In the main body of the work, Mr. Armstrong explains how to apply these diverse bodies of management knowledge to the problem of product development. This section is rich with examples of techniques, tools and practical applications drawn from real product development projects. Although the context is usually that of a large project in a large company, the descriptions are readily applicable to smaller organizations with equally critical need for successful product development projects.
In his final section, Mr. Armstrong offers a blueprint for establishing the holistic approach to product development in any company, large or small. In it, he offers one of the most cogent and compelling discussions on overcoming resistance to change that I have encountered anywhere. This is, in itself, well worth the price of the book.

As a small ISO 9001:2000 registered Capital Equipment Design and Manufacturer (75 employees and a revenue of $16M) we are challenged daily to measure, analyze and continually improve our QMS and in particular our Product Realization Process.
Within the pages of EPDM The Holistic Approach I have discovered the philosophy, the methodology and the tools to effectively implement the changes required throughout our enterprise to successfully pursue the goals and objectives of our Quality Policy and Business Strategy.
The book explains how to construct a process architecture for product development and more importantly illustrates how to overcome the inevitable resistance to change.
Even though the book is based around large Aerospace companies the concepts are scalable to smaller enterprises such as ours.

Through our new cross-functional teams we are in the process of integrating the contents of the book into our enterprise management system.
The transformation that has taken place within our company at all levels since we have adopted the Holistic Approach is very evident and measurable.
It has delighted both our owners and our customers and resulted in a highly motivated, effective and focused workforce.

The author has done an excellent job of presenting the proper
marriage of systems engineering and process development/deployment. It
is obvious that he speaks from the vantage point of many years of
experience in various industries; in other words, "He has been there and
done it. One of the strongest points of the book is the workflow
Illustrations and figures depicting the various hierarchical structures that
can be utilized in process development. Conversely, the major weak
point of the book is that the text could have addressed the figures and
illustration more thoroughly with greater discussion on the details.
However, as is, the book is an excellent reference work for the
systems engineer, the process development practitioner, and especially those
just starting in the process world. I recommend the book highly and
give it a four-star plus (out of five) rating."

The author has done an excellent job of presenting the proper
marriage of systems engineering and process development/deployment. It
is obvious that he speaks from the vantage point of many years of
experience in various industries; in other words, "He has been there and
done it. One of the strongest points of the book is the workflow
Illustrations and figures depicting the various hierarchical structures that
can be utilized in process development. Conversely, the major weak
point of the book is that the text could have addressed the figures and
illustration more thoroughly with greater discussion on the details.
However, as is, the book is an excellent reference work for the
systems engineer, the process development practitioner, and especially those
just starting in the process world. I recommend the book highly and
give it a four-star plus (out of five) rating."

Engineering and Product Development Management - The Holistic Approach
Stephen C. Armstrong, Cambridge University Press,
ISBN 0-521-79069-7


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Book Reviewed by Mark Crowne CEng MIEE, www.mcrowne.com

Product development is not an area where the UK is considered to have great strength these days, so it is heartening to read a book by a native on this subject, even if much of the experience that it draws on was gained in US aerospace companies.  As a current practitioner in product development working in the mobile phone sector, the reviewer approached it with great interest.

In this opinionated and interesting book, Armstrong attempts nothing less than a grand unified theory of product development management, bringing together six different disciplines in a mutually supportive and reinforcing way. These disciplines are: integrated product development, project/programme management, process management, organisational change/political management, product data management and systems engineering. 

This is not a theoretical exercise - the book is full of practical suggestions and insights born of Armstrong's own consulting practice with aerospace product companies such as Short Brothers, Lockheed and Bombardier. The book is not a good place to start for anyone wanting to understand the six disciplines, rather it is a guidebook with examples for product development practitioners wishing to improve their organisations by applying the principles in a coherent fashion.  

A particular strength of the book is that it recognises the importance and challenges of change management within the business - product organisations are often effective at considering those aspects of change that relate to their products, but not those bearing on their processes or skills.  A weakness is that it could do with further editing - subject material can be difficult to find as a reference, and it is not as easy to read as some other references in the field, such as "Setting the PACE in Product Development".

In summary, this book is a good contribution to the body of knowledge on product development, and deserves a place in the library of any manager working in this area.

The Holistic Approach is like being on the bridge of the Star Ship Enterprise, and giving each other a group hug after every group decision.

The author describes, lists and charts every function of every team member in minute detail, then contradicts himself by saying that each team member is required to overlook each otherÕs shoulders and join in on their duties. Now, this lends itself to three obvious problems: one Ð the time required to ÒhelpÓ someone else, and two Ð the trust factor is way down, and three - why would you perform your functions if someone else will re-do it anyway?

The top 10 lessons learned of case studies simply states good leadership and communication are a must. However, a caution is also raised, that there is a high level of frustration and desire to revert to old practices of project management after a mere 3-6 months. Could the moral be: to undertake short projects?

With real-life power struggles, and the threat of losing power leads to job-loss, these holistic procedures for product and process management are not in place, and realistically will not be in place.