Client: ConMet 

Date: November 20-21, 2017

Site: https://www.conmet.com

Situation

ConMet is the leading supplier of wheel ends, aluminum castings, and plastic components for the commercial vehicle industry.

The commercial vehicle parts industry has rapidly globalized. 

How could management engage employees to assess their major business processes and identify new strategic directions?

Solution

Working in collaboration with the executive leadership team and Portland State Univeristy's Center for Executive and Professional Education, Steaming Kettle:

• Worked with management to create high-level process maps to be amended by staff
• Planned two half-day long retreats to simultaneously engage sales, engineering, and production teams. Primary intentions were:
  • Highlight growth goals: impact the Application and Design teams’ thinking about their growth goals and their collective approach to growth
  • Process capacity-building strategy: identify strategies to increase capacity in the applications and design process
  • Team unity: strengthen unity and trust among the Applications and Design teams. Boost morale and increase fellowship with new Applications Engineering Manager
• Prepared process specific materials and facilitation questions  
• Facilitated learn-and-do sessions including:
  • Strengths and weaknesses of internal processes
  • Opportunities and threats facing the company's existing processes
  • Identification of strategies using a strategy SWOT 
  • Strategy and metric selection
  • Action planning for selected strategies
  • Team critique of selected strategies and plans
• Coordinated a briefing on each strategy and plan for the Vice President of Metals Engineering

Outcomes

Steaming Kettle and the ConMet team collaborated to create the following deliverables:

• Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats, & Opportunities: a set of internal strengths and weaknesses regarding the present product development process. A set of external threats and opportunities facing the present product development process.
• Strategies for Addressing Growth: a set of five strategies to increase capacity in the applications development and design process
• Process Metrics: a set of possible metrics by which the product development teams might assess their technical and business performance
• Action Plans: a set of steps to implement each strategy