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For immediate release Duane Y. Oda Designated a 2005 Product Development and R&D Metrics “MVP” by Management Roundtable
He has championed the development and implementation of strategic road-mapping and portfolio management processes at Boeing Commercial Airplanes and supported a Boeing enterprise road-mapping initiative co-led by Raymond Cosner (Boeing Integrated Defense Systems director of technology and leader of IDS road-mapping). These efforts have resulted in a dramatic improvement in the effectiveness of product development and R&D, while establishing meaningful metrics for R&D based on the corporate revenue that is linked to the success of each R&D product. Other metrics measure how well the R&D portfolio targets the right strategic capability needs. For his leadership and commitment he was named a 2005 Product Development and R&D Metrics MVP Award Winner by Management Roundtable, Inc. (Waltham, MA), the leading knowledge and networking resource for product developers. “In my role as the single aisle product development chief two years ago, I saw a growing need/opportunity to strengthen the alignment of product development and technology development activities to Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ (BCA) strategic objectives, market opportunities and customer value,” Oda explains. Though there were other ways to approach this, Oda and his team selected strategic road-mapping based on a best practice assessment of how other leading companies in the world utilized this methodology. Strategic road-mapping provides the strategic view necessary for rational long-term investments in product development and R&D as captured and managed by product and technology development portfolios. “This initiative has been a strong enabler in enhancing the development of the BCA R&D plan as well as the alignment of strategies to our R&D plan,” he maintains. Product development, both organization and processes, plays a vital role in BCA’s R&D process and the development of its R&D plan. “Our multi-year R&D plan drives product development and technology development activities as well as providing the basis for the allocation of R&D funding,” Oda states. The “readiness” of the R&D activities are measured through R&D gate reviews/criteria led by product development, with cross-functional involvement by organizations such as marketing/sales, product strategy, product development, technology development, finance, engineering, manufacturing and competitive analysis/intelligence, etc. Oda credits the road-mapping activity with enabling better communication of the company strategies. “The road-mapping process that we use has been a great collaboration tool in that it allows our people to know what the strategies are and for the appropriate people to develop the plans to address them,” he states. He adds that now many of the roadmaps extend out for 20 years, where previously they only extended out a few years. The new roadmaps contain all of the potential products that they plan to launch over that 20-year time frame. “By having information and scenarios that show things going out twenty years, it really has gotten folks to think more strategically, more forward thinking further out,” he states. In addition to utilizing road-mapping within Boeing, this approach is being piloted in support of some of BCA’s external collaboration efforts (i.e., with NASA, strategic partners, technical affiliates, etc.). The strategic road-mapping process aligns BCA’s market requirements and opportunities to future products and services, and identifies what capabilities (metrics) are required to make these products and services successful. “This provides the ingredients for defining what the right technology and product development activity will be required to achieve these capabilities,” Oda explains. “When we create these roadmaps from scratch, we invite representatives from various organizations and share with them the end goal we’re trying to accomplish.” The cross-functional approach helps to define and strengthen the links among marketing, product development, technology development, finance and others--essentially the value stream—to develop the right products at the right time in the right marketplace. “We all now have a better understanding of the role each of us plays in producing a successful product in the world marketplace.” According to Oda, the road-mapping process has enabled BCA to have a better focus on the R&D activities to ensure that the capabilities (metrics) are met. “We now have a chance of achieving our objectives in a fashion where they are better focused in terms of R&D dollars, in resources and expertise—that’s why we’re more effective,” he assures. “Our entire road-mapping effort and accompanying metrics influence how we spend our R&D dollars and enable us to better define the type of resources we need to support that product development project.” Oda declares, “I can assure you that our portfolio today is a lot better aligned to the right products/services strategic capability needs, with meaningful R&D metrics, than we were several years ago.” # # # |
PRESS CONTACT: MVP AWARD DETAILS: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The award recipients will be honored at a special ceremony during the 10th Annual Conference on Product Development Metrics: Achieving the Full Value of R&D, in Chicago on November 8, 2005. For
press invitations, please contact Jackie Cooper, 781-891-8080
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