THE COGENT THEORY
THE COGENT PROGRAMME
The Cogent Programme Design Methodology
Using knowledge gained from other researchers looking at Concurrent Engineering and supplier-VM interaction in product development ( Wheelwright & Clark 1992,
Clark & Fujimoto 1991, Kamath & Liker 1994, Littler & Leverick 1993) a programme design emerged, based upon three principles:-
• The use workshops and a non-critical environment to increase early cooperation
• Workshop / improvement activities based around a real problem, being tackled in real time (in this case the design of the Almera replacement)
• The setting of specific challenging targets for improvement that created a need to “think of different ways of doing things”.
The programme focused upon three main activity areas, which were seen as key to gaining the commitment from suppliers to participate fully in a programme with such challenging targets:-
• Aligning the design processes between VM and supplier
• Joint improvement planning activities
• Protected profit margins2
The initial workshop was designed for Managing Directors of key suppliers, the principal objective was to gain top management commitment, and create comfort that other companies were in a similar situation to their own. The plan was to work initially with 7 suppliers, covering all spectra of ownership (UK, Europe, USA and
Japan), size (large to small) and competence (good, poor and mediocre) as scored by
Nissan’s existing supplier performance measurement tool3 to test out the robustness of the workshop design. The whole programme consisted of 8 workshops, with workshops for groups of company technical directors and engineering directors following a similar pattern to the MD session, and then an individual company senior management workshop followed, based at the supplier site to increase openness and allow more supplier staff to participate. Where there were specific technical or project management issues to resolve, additional, specific
The Cogent Programme Design Methodology
Using knowledge gained from other researchers looking at Concurrent Engineering and supplier-VM interaction in product development ( Wheelwright & Clark 1992,
Clark & Fujimoto 1991, Kamath & Liker 1994, Littler & Leverick 1993) a programme design emerged, based upon three principles:-
• The use workshops and a non-critical environment to increase early cooperation
• Workshop / improvement activities based around a real problem, being tackled in real time (in this case the design of the Almera replacement)
• The setting of specific challenging targets for improvement that created a need to “think of different ways of doing things”.
The programme focused upon three main activity areas, which were seen as key to gaining the commitment from suppliers to participate fully in a programme with such challenging targets:-
• Aligning the design processes between VM and supplier
• Joint improvement planning activities
• Protected profit margins2
The initial workshop was designed for Managing Directors of key suppliers, the principal objective was to gain top management commitment, and create comfort that other companies were in a similar situation to their own. The plan was to work initially with 7 suppliers, covering all spectra of ownership (UK, Europe, USA and
Japan), size (large to small) and competence (good, poor and mediocre) as scored by
Nissan’s existing supplier performance measurement tool3 to test out the robustness of the workshop design. The whole programme consisted of 8 workshops, with workshops for groups of company technical directors and engineering directors following a similar pattern to the MD session, and then an individual company senior management workshop followed, based at the supplier site to increase openness and allow more supplier staff to participate. Where there were specific technical or project management issues to resolve, additional, specific