The construction plans are impeccable, parameters have been precisely calculated and state-ofthe-art project management tools are in place. When time and cost requirements still can‘t be met, this is often due to a project‘s social complexity rather than the technical one. This is why WILD is giving conventional product development processes a fundamental upgrade.

Several different universes have to convene to create a new product. From customer to developer team, from manufacturing to supply chain management: People with completely different mindsets, technical terminologies and corporate cultures interact at these interfaces. Quite often, a certain dynamic will develop in this highly complex system architecture, which is no longer manageable using conventional product development processes. “In practice, projects will rarely fail due to a lack of technical expertise. The actual pinch point is people. Technical complexity can be managed. Social complexity, however, is at least just as important. We are increasingly focusing precisely on the latter and using tools to steer it in a targeted manner. After all, even the most sophisticated process is only as effective as the human collaboration at these interfaces“, stresses Wolfgang Warum, Managing Director at WILD Electronics.

TRANSDISCIPLINARY PROJECT MANAGEMENT AS AN EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
Therefore, WILD decided to work with Stephan Richter, Managing Director of sr-global consult, to add a social-organisational component to its proven product development process. “We are talking about transdisciplinary project management in which four levers act as a  navigational aid and a highly efficient early warning system”, explains Michael Reissig, Head of Development at WILD.

The first step consists in a well-founded, early assessment. Points of friction, unclear priorities or diverging expectations are systematically laid bare before they can jeopardise a project’s success.

The second lever is a consistent interconnection of systems. The latter introduces order in human collaboration by closely linking the  “technical system” (factors like plans, data and components) to the “project system” (soft factors like information flows). As a result, all internal and external experts are interlinked in such a way that the entire team remains capable of taking action and decisions at all times.

The third lever is a clear logic of responsibility. It unmistakably determines who can take which final decisions and when. This helps prevent “phantom” decisions that ultimately no one feels responsible for. The fourth lever makes use of general conflict management. Disagreements and different mindsets are not suppressed but used as valuable warning signals instead.

BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS TO CREATE GENUINE USER UNDERSTANDING
The extent to which this approach has proven useful was recently demonstrated by Franz Aigner, Head of Medical Technology at WILD, and Anna Poms, Key Account Manager at WILD together with WILDDESIGN at the industry event “PEP Reloaded” – the leading management summit for smart product development processes. They used SeeLuma™, the world’s first fully digital 3D surgical microscope manufactured by WILD as an example. “In the case of such a technological quantum leap, a flood of requirements descends upon the teams at the start of the project. What we are talking about are those infamous giant excel tables”, says Dennis Kulage, at the helm of the WILDDESIGN head office. If no countermeasures are taken, this high complexity and sheer number of interfaces will cause the teams to become isolated without communicating with each other. The designer therefore converts complex requirements into an initial, graspable picture at the onset of the project. By doing so, they create a joint vision for the team.

“Project design is often falsely understood as a purely visual hood you just pull over the finished engineering”, says Kulage. In a transdisciplinary approach, however, the industrial designer acts as a link between development, manufacturing and the ultimate user. They reveal the real needs well in advance. The ultimate user – in this case the surgeon – was sitting at the table from the very beginning. Even before any detailed technical developments kicked off, WILDDESIGN build mockups using simple materials like cardboard or wood. They were thus able to test and optimise the ergonomics, the handle positions and the complex mechanics of the eyepiece directly on the model.

To understand the actual requirements in the operating theatre and to integrate valuable user feedback, the medical designers observe surgical interventions in a clinical setting already in the early stages of the project. They examine the spatial conditions, the interactions with the devices used in the operating theatre, the work routines of the surgery team and factors like light conditions and cable management. Their observations are built into realistic simulations set up in the company’s own premises. As a result, users and the project team can test user interfaces and function areas for usability, efficiency and acceptance under realistic conditions ahead of programming and technological development.

AVOIDING ERRORS SAVES TIME AND MONEY
Such radical frontloading represents a huge economic gain, since every subsequent amendment will cost weeks or even months, especially in the case of strictly regulated medical technology products. Transdisciplinary project management helps avoid precisely these unnecessary cost traps.

It’s no coincidence that the WILD Group has developed and implemented this new approach so successfully. As a technology partner that develops and manufactures exclusively on behalf of its customers, WILD has always brought together all stakeholders around the table early on in the process. This simultaneous collaboration in partnership creates a deep understanding for each other’s work approaches and needs. Moreover, it points in the direction that the industry should be heading to: only those capable of controlling the invisible dynamics between departments just as precisely as the technical parameters will steadily and profitably bring innovations to the market.