Making the Case for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles
How one of the world's largest automotive manufactures partnered with commercial and non-for-profit organizations to validate the business case of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles.
The Client
The Client is one of the world's largest automotive manufacturers with global sales of more than 6.5 million cars and annual revenue exceeding US $170B. The company has over 245,000 employees and 100 facilities worldwide. The Client applies several alternative fuel automotive technologies in both pre-production and production including Fuel Cells, Hybrid, and Plug-In Hybrid technologies.
The Challenge
The Client needed to determine the viability of producing Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). A PHEV study team was established that collaborated with a utilities company and a utilities consortium to build the business case. The challenge was managing all project activities and resources between these three organizations with distinct company cultures, with large geographic distances in between, and from dissimilar industries.
The Pcubed Solution
Pcubed created a Program Management Plan (PMP), based on the contractual agreements between the companies. The plan included elements such as the project scope, stakeholders, assumptions, risk analysis, work breakdown structures, milestones, statements of work, resource details, budgets, purchasing and procurement details, communication plans, change control processes, and lessons learned.
Communication was a pivotal component of the execution of the plan. Weekly conference calls were established comprising representatives of each company. The focus of these working meetings was to make certain that all tasks were proceeding on time and to budget. Participants covered functions such as Program Management, Engineering, Government Affairs, Finance, Purchasing, and Risk Management.
Also monthly face-to-face stakeholder meetings were established to ensure that project scope, cost and timing remained consistent with the objectives of the collaboration agreement. These meetings included team building exercises to create cross-company bonding.
Where program management expertise was lacking between the various business partners, Pcubed delivered program management training and mentoring as well. Other communication dimensions such as a project web site were setup. The site allowed team members to communicate with the entire team quickly and effectively.
The Results
The PHEV program was concluded successfully. Pcubed pulled all collaboration partners together from traditionally dissimilar industries and ensured that everybody was able to work well together in a collaborative environment. The established processes and templates were easy to understand for all team members, and in fact, most processes are now being used within the collaboration partners' organization, outside of the PHEV study team. In addition, the team was awarded the United States Department of Energy Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technology Acceleration and Deployment Activity Award, thanks to the strong collaboration, planning, and management of the initiative.