SUPPORT: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Assignments and resources
As soon as we are awarded a project, your team is selected: you the customer, an Aurasound program manager, sales representative and the engineer. Each member is accountable for deliverables through each stage of the process. The listed deliverables are accomplished step-by-step. Each phase of a program as listed must be completed and approved before moving on to the next phase. This assures each process is completed correctly, and minimizes back-sliding. Knowing the scope at the onset of a project assures a speedy process to market.
Schedule
Once your program is established, we will meet directly with you to determine your time-to-market needs. Once this is established we create a schedule that will be shared with all team members. Our program management will work very closely with you to determine the customer-associated tasks, and combine those tasks with the product development tasks to ensure a timely outcome. Heavy planning in the early stages of a program ensures a timely, on-schedule outcome. While we at Aurasound will be responsible for our milestones, it will also be clearly identified as to the customer’s deliverables to ensure schedule adherence. Customer tasks will be clearly identified to also display what Aurasound tasks are dependent on customer tasks.
A task sheet is used to cover objectives and tasks for communication and constant communication via the schedule ensures full knowledge by the team as a whole of the project’s progress. If there are timing problems, proactive questions and communication and approaches can be deployed.
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Preliminary Product Definition
A product cannot be developed successfully on time unless the team is fully aware of the needs of the product. This is accomplished via performance and cost analysis. The Customer and Aurasound conduct product design meetings to decide on performance objectives desired by the customer to successfully market the product. This involves the customer’s marketing and engineering team. This is an early stage process between the customer and Aurasound to work through the needs and features. This enables a preliminary BOM to be created that ensures cost targets are met. It is useless to develop a product unless both sides are in full agreement on the performance versus price goals. This avoids loss of time to “go back to the drawing board” if there is a cost issue that takes the product over the cost targets.
This also serves as a valuable tool for the customer’s Marketing, Engineering and Executive staff to be fully disclosed as to the product to be developed and what challenges if any may lie ahead.
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Cost versus Performance – Benchmarking cost
Once a preliminary Product Spec is agreed upon by the Customer and the Aurasound team, we move forward with a preliminary bill of materials. This process lets both the customer and the team evaluate where the performance versus cost benchmark is. We estimate the cost of the product line items, create estimates as to the cost of production, shipping, and landing in your warehouse. This allows the customer to see what the actual cost of goods are once received, so a true gross margin can be determined. In the event the customer’s gross margin is not meeting their targets, then the team can review the line items versus performance spec and make the appropriate adjustments necessary to meet the customer’s gross margin objectives.
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Summary
Proper planning and good project management saves time and ensures a trouble-free product development process. Aurasound’s upfront planning and project management ensures our customers meet all their objectives on time and on target. This process eliminates any surprises at the end of a project and enables your team and the Aurasound team to be working as one to bring your products to market efficiently and profitably.
This process allows the customer’s team and the Aurasound team to be working as one to bring your products to market.
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