Rockwell’s proactive re-engineering

Rockwell’s proactive re-engineering

by Greg Paula, Associate Editor

The company has begun to streamline its product-development process through more effective resource allocation and better scheduling of projects

Rockwell Automation in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, formerly the Allen-Bradley Co. and now a division of Rockwell International, is a leading manufacturer of industrial automation-control products. In February 1996, Rockwell Automation's Control and Information Group (C&IG) decided to evaluate the re-engineering opportunities within its new-product-development processes, with Robert Murphy as director of the effort. Though Rockwell Automation was highly profitable and had an effective program for developing new products, management chose to re-engineer primarily because the company was being carried by products and technology and not by development.

Rockwell Automation's authorization procedure systematically guides a product through a four-stage development process

Before re-engineering, whenever there was a proposal to develop a new product or technology, management would typically approve it with little regard for available resources. As a result, on paper up to 150 percent of resources were often committed. The extra projects would be completed but delayed, and impacts would be felt on other projects, causing morale problems.

To plan a more disciplined portfolio, C&IG is implementing a software-based distributed project-management system. C&IG has selected new software, AutoPLAN from Digital Tools Inc. in Cupertino, Calif., that allows multiple projects to draw from a common resource pool; this is integrated with a distributed project-management system for trending and predictions. The goal is to use 70 to 75 percent of capacity and reserve the rest for unforeseen situations and emergencies. The projects that do get launched are analyzed within the portfolio and can be achieved.

C&IG's project-authorization-request process (PAR) has four stages: market analysis of an idea, feasibility and engineering requirements, implementation (where the actual design and manufacturing take place), and a project postmortem. At the start of a project, only resources for the market analysis are allocated, but funds for the entire project are held in reserve to ensure that if projects become viable the capital and manpower will be there.

The above was adapted from an article by Greg Paula, Associate Editor. The full text may be found in the June 1997 issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine. © 1997 ASME International.© To obtain a copy of this issue, click here.