Ford Motor Co. EESE
The Electrical/Electronic Systems Engineering department has four functional Engineering areas, each with its own chief engineer:
1. North America Truck
2. North America Car
3. Commodity and Application Engineering
4. E/E Software and Modeling
The Client
Ford Motor Co. has revenues of $164,196 billion and 326,531 employees worldwide.
The Challenge
The primary measurement challenge for Ford's Electrical/Electronic Systems Engineering department was the length of time it took managers to realize that the project management office approach was necessary for project management processes to improve.
At the same time, always considering the following:
- Improve quality
- Improve quality (intentionally repeated)
- Develop exciting products
- Achieve competitive cost and revenue
- Build relationships
Other key challenges included:
The Electrical/Electronic Systems Engineering department has two primary strategies for selecting project management office projects:
- Select based on the corporate scorecard objectives for the given calendar year
- Select based on the underlining goal of increasing the department's project management maturity
The Pcubed Solution
The professional firm of Pcubed Inc. is considered the owner of the project management methodology employed at Ford Motor Company. This methodology is aligned with the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), PMI, and PM Berkeley Maturity models, which are the recognized industry standards. The approach comprises three phases:
- Discover & Define:Assess the overall health and baseline project management process
- Develop & Deliver:Develop and pilot the recommended solutions to address the needs from 'Discover & Define'
- Deploy & Drive:Ensure solutions are fully implemented across the department
Key elements of the solution included:
- Project Manager:Leads project execution plan development
- Stakeholders:Subject matter experts who provide feedback about project deliverables
- Governance Board:Reviews the progress of the project and gives the necessary approval or rejections for recommendations