Incentivized bowling toy made by Enabling Devices/Toys for Special Children.

Program Management

	Technology development and commercialization
	Technical organization design and development
	Developmental technical mentoring
	Project risk assessment and management using metrics
	Strategy and plan development, implementation and management

Case Study:

Challenge:

Enabling Devices, a small manufacturer of devices to help physically challenged people, suffered from disorganization, especially in product development, and inefficiency.  They wanted to tighten up their management practices to ensure timely launches of quality products.

Solution:

	Created a four-phase product development/project management system, including metrics to track the client's many new product projects. The system was easy to use, featuring project checklists, marketing specifications, and team meeting minutes formats.
	Conducted team member/team leader training in all parts of the system. Mentored team leaders, and led three projects to give an example.
	Redefined and scheduled the marketing process for catalog production and new product release timing.
	Developed a system for manufacturing work order generation to make production more efficient.

Result:

	President of company found that metrics gave him more understanding of what new products were going to be available for new catalogs.
	The organization has developed into a more efficient unit.

"The metrics and phases Ellen put in place are perfect.  We have released about 100 new products since then; our error rate has decreased, all the product elements are in place by launch, and our brochures are more timely.  Our sales have increased 4%, despite the economic downturn, due in part to these improvements." - Steven Kanor, Ph.D., President, Enabling Devices

Page design by Ellen Golds, last updated 120904