Managing the rapid growth of an electric container start-up

Client context

The customer's activity breaks down as follows: find land to install a container, liaise with local authorities, the container manufacturer, the grid operator, the landowner, etc. to manage the future connection. And finally, to commission the installed and connected container.

 The need is clear: we need to structure management, which is based on the principle of reaction rather than serenity.

The challenges are as follows:

- Implementation of a project management system to control and improve project development.

- Initiation of a dynamic of continuous process improvement by the teams to continue to support growth over the next few years.

Support put into place

1. The first step was to understand the current operation. To do this, we deciphered every step from container commissioning to the detection of the associated parcel. By tracing back the flow, we questioned the origin of each piece of information/document/product, and thus identified each step carried out by the teams, step by step. Given that little formalization existed, we gradually deciphered the complete process followed by a project, and formalized everyone's know-how as we went along. We also began to set up indicators to give us a vision of current performance.

2. All the analyses were shared with all the players, and we drew from them the major findings shared above. 

Once the starting point had been established and shared by all, we worked on building the new organization.

To illustrate the major levers we were going to use, we gave practical Lean training courses to all the teams.

We then reworked the entire process by applying Lean principles, to “compress” it as much as possible (to reduce throughput time), iterating and making available instruction sheets, defining means of communication, simplifying work tools, assessing workload/capacity, and so on.

3. Once the target organization had been defined, it had to be monitored: to ensure that the organization was being maintained, to identify alerts as early as possible, to anticipate and foresee issues, etc., and consequently to ensure that it was delivering the expected gains.

We therefore defined and set up a monitoring system, including a review of KPIs, an alert system, a circuit for reporting hazards for in-depth processing, day-to-day team leadership and a continuous improvement dynamic.

Results

• Capacity: 50% increase
• Lead Time: 30% reduction
• Productivity: 10% reduction
• Improved internal coordination and elimination of half the number of contingencies