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.

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.

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.