OBCDC Greenhouse Revitalization

Posted on October 3, 2013

OBCDC was interested in having our team “conduct a needs assessment for the redevelopment of sustainable greenhouse production.”  The intent was to essentially develop a business case for the development of greenhouses in Old Brooklyn which would reflect the historical status of Old Brooklyn as the “greenhouse capital of the world”.

Reason for Project:

  • Discuss and plan for a sustainable local food production system that will nurture Old Brooklyn and the surrounding communities both economically and socially.
  • Visibly illustrate the linkages to other economic development activities underway in Old Brooklyn and the surrounding areas.

 Project Deliverables:

  • Documented the current-state systems which affect the feasibility of a new greenhouse food production system in Old Brooklyn using an Action Research Methodology.  This included a series of structured interviews with key stakeholders, the development of a stakeholder map and the creation of a causal loop map.
  • Completed a feedback session with all system stakeholders (26) using a modified “World Café” format http://www.theworldcafe.com/pdfs/cafetogo.pdf.

 Project Results/Benefits:

  • Clarified/Documented Strategic Plan: The project resulted in the development of a strategic plan with defined initiatives, committee assignments, goals and metrics to track success.
  • Moved the Project “Ball: Our part of the project led to a presentation to OBCDC Board; funding exploration by Entrepreneurs 4 Sustainability, NOFN and OBCDC; and the hiring of a “Greenhouse Nudger” by OBCDC. Also, Leadership Cleveland chose our project for next year’s focus project.
  • Publication: After the project was complete, an article of our project success was published by Kessels & Smit in November 2004.

American Red Cross- Strategic Planning

Posted on October 1, 2013

The Business and Industry Council for Emergency Planning (BEPA) had recently completed a SWOT analysis to evaluate its status as an on-going resource for the Greater Cleveland area.  At that time the Strategic Advisory Committee was at a cross-roads and concerned about the health of the initiative and the general lack of clarity concerning the short- and long-term strategy/plan.

Reason for Project:

  • Clarify understanding around the current state of the BEPA program.
  • Define a future-state vision of the BEPA program that would allow it to best meet its objectives.
  • Develop a short- and long-term action plan for implementing the future-state vision.

Project Deliverables:

  • Led the Strategic Advisory Committee through a current-state review considering industry trends and the SWOT analysis.
  • Brainstormed a compelling future-state vision for the BEPA program and led a discussion to prioritize characteristics.
  • Developed metrics for measuring the success of the new system(s).
  • Developed a plan (series of initiatives) for implementing the future-state system over the next year.

Project Results/Benefits:

  • Clarified/Documented Strategic Plan: The project resulted in the development of a strategic plan with defined initiatives, committee assignments, goals and metrics to track success.

FFr – Product Launch Process Review

Posted on

FFr

Due to the large and growing number of new product projects in the “pipeline”, FFr wanted to find a way to improve their speed-to-market cycle for new products while maintaining their high customer satisfaction rating and prioritizing those products with the highest potential for large profit.

Reason for Project:

  • Reduce the time to launch a product once it has been approved for development.
  • Improve the ability of functional areas to work together on new product launch (NPL) projects.
  • Identify and fix “gaps” in the process that cause unnecessary delays in the NPL process.
  • Improve the tracking of projects in the “pipeline” so that the project status is clear to customer service and management.
  • Develop a better method for prioritizing product development projects so that all projects get completed in a timely manner and “best” meet FFr’s customer satisfaction and profit objectives.
  • Reduce the amount of obsolete material created due to the NPL initiatives.
  • Improve the link between the NPL process, the product bill-of-materials and the manufacturing operations.

Project Deliverables:

  • Led the executive team through a system redesign of their new product design process using the Action Research process (Discovery, Feedback, Collaborative Design).
  • Documented how the existing system operates through observations and interviews with the system stakeholders.
  • Identified the key drivers that impact the speed of designing/launching new products.
  • Developed a plan for implementing documented improvements over the next year.

Project Results/Benefits:

  • Streamlined Process/Increased Speed to Market: The developed process significantly streamlined the product design/launch systems by eliminating some of the typical delay factors.
  • Increased Capacity:  The new process design enhanced FFr’s ability to generate new designs by removing system delays, rework and non-value added activities.