Reference process for the development of an engineering strategy

Reference process for the development of an engineering strategy Michael Gepp, Florian Steinmann

Andreas Schertl, Jan Vollmar

University Erlangen-Nuremberg Nuremberg, Germany [email protected]

Siemens AG, Corporate Technology Erlangen, Germany [email protected]

Abstract— The critical influence of functional strategies on business success is undisputed, as well as the impact of engineering. Surprisingly, research on functional strategies for engineering organizations is scarce. Purpose: this contribution aims to provide engineering organizations with a guideline for the development and implementation of engineering strategies. Approach: first, a literature review determines the state of research for functional strategies i.e. which functional strategies are in the focus of research. The review also aims to evaluate approaches for the development of functional strategies. Then, a market analysis gives an overview of consulting offers for strategy development. To gain insight on how engineering strategies are developed in industrial practice, seven projects which focused on strategy development were analyzed. Findings: based on the analysis of seven functional strategy development projects a reference process for the planning and implementation of an engineering strategy is presented. Originality: there is a large body of literature on business and corporate strategies. On a functional level research focuses on marketing, procurement and manufacturing strategy. Functional strategies for engineering received no attention in the literature yet. Index Terms— functional strategy, strategic management, engineering, reference process, project business.

I. INTRODUCTION This contribution consists of three major sections (Fig. 1). The first part provides the theoretical foundation describing strategy and the different levels of strategy in an organization. Also a short overview of project business is given.

The second section describes the state of research for functional strategies and the role of engineering from a theoretical perspective. In order to complete the theoretical results an analysis of management consulting firms regarding their strategy consulting offers is conducted. Based on literature for strategy development (both functional & business) and based on seven projects focusing on strategy development, the third section presents a reference process for engineering strategy development. II. TERMINOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS A. Strategy ‘A common definition of the term strategy is illusive.’ ([1] p. 3). Most researchers in the field of strategy agree that there is no single, universally accepted definition of strategy [2][3]. However, to introduce the topic of strategy we base ourselves on a definition which is one of the most favored by industry representatives proposed by Johnson and Scholes ([4], p. 3): Strategy is the ‘direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations.’ B. Strategic levels Most organizations have multiple levels of management. Thus different levels of strategy can be distinguished. The majority of researchers sees three primary levels of strategy within a hierarchical structure: corporate, business and functional strategy levels [5], although some researchers differentiate between more than these three levels of strategy [6][7][8][9]. These strategic levels interact. Wheelwright [5] developed one of the most cited models of the relationship between business strategy and functional strategy (Fig. 2). The core concept underlying this model is that business level strategies should be supported by various functional level strategies that are internally consistent [10].

Fig. 1: Structure of contribution

D. Engineering Engineering is a key discipline in the project business. However, a common understanding of engineering is missing yet, there are a number of various definitions. The authors see the following characteristics. From an organizational point of view engineering is a (primary) corporate function organized in a distinct department. But it has a wide range of responsibility since it covers all technical tasks in the value chain. III. METHODOLOGY

IT – information technology; HR – human resources

Fig. 2: Levels of strategy (based on [5])

The corporate level typically addresses (1) the definition of businesses in which the corporation wishes to participate and (2) the acquisition and allocation of resources to the business units [5][8][11]. The business level strategy generally refers to business units or strategic planning units. On this level, two critical issues are specified: (1) the scope or boundaries of each business unit and the operational links with corporate strategy, and (2) the basis on which the business unit will achieve and maintain a competitive advantage within its industry [5][8]. On a functional level (sometimes called operational level) strategy specifies how functional units like marketing and sales, manufacturing, research and development and accounting/control, among others, will support the desired competitive business level strategy and complement each other [8]. While a typical question on a business level is ‘How should we compete in a certain business?’ functional strategy tries to answer the question ‘How can the function contribute to the competitive advantage of the business? [12]. Two types of functions can be differentiated on a functional level: primary functions and supporting functions. Primary functions are usually distinct business units or departmental functions such as R&D, engineering, procurement or marketing. And there are supporting functions such as controlling, HR, and IT, which cut across the business units [13]]. C. Project business Project business is characterized by its diversity. Engineering companies in this business plan, design and build complex systems and plants for petroleum refining, chemical processing, iron and steel processing, or power generation. Contract volumes can range up to several hundreds of millions of dollars and more [14]. There are five different business models of engineering organizations in this business which are considered in this contribution: (1) turn-key contractors, (2) architecture and design firms, (3) system integrators and suppliers, (4) component suppliers, (5) technology suppliers [15].

In this contribution three methods of data collection were used: a literature review, case study analyses and an analysis of the strategy consulting offers of management consulting firms. A. Literature review The literature review consisted of three subsequent steps: 1) First the framing for the review was defined and the search terms for the literature search were set. We concentrated on the research areas of strategic management and engineering management. In these fields we choose the following outlets: Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Engineering Management, International Journal of Operation & Production Management and Journal of Management in Engineering. In these outlets a manual search for publications with reference to functional strategies was conducted for the years 1995 – 2013. At the end of the conceptual phase terms ‘engineering strategy’, ‘functional strategy’ and ‘strategic management’ were defined as keywords for database search. 2) Then the above defined keywords were used in an automated search in three databases for academic literature: a) GoogleScholar (http://scholar.google.de), b) Ebscohost (http://search.ebscohost.com) c) ProQuest (http://www.proquest.co.uk/en-UK). Between Feb 15, 2013 and Apr 16, 2013 - for each database and search term - the first 100 search results were analyzed and suitable publications for further analysis were selected based on their title and abstract. In total, 56 publications have been selected. 3) Finally, 56 publications were analyzed in detail to determine the state of the art. B. Case study analysis Case study analysis included seven strategy projects which have been conducted by engineering organizations between 2009 and 2013. The strategy development projects were in the field of energy generation and transmission domain (5), industrial automation (1) and corporate function (1). Data source was the project documentation at first. In addition, interviews were conducted with involved consultants for each project. C. Management consulting offers Management consulting firms commonly support engineering organizations in the development of strategies for

different business levels. Based on their corporate websites, we analyzed strategy consulting offers of the 12 largest management consulting firms in Germany 2012 based on their turnover [16]. IV. STATE OF RESEARCH A. Role of functional strategies The idea of functional strategies was first mentioned 1984 by Wheelwright, who identified manufacturing strategy as the missing link between business level strategy and manufacturing [5]. Since then research focused also on other functions and the importance of functional strategies was confirmed by many studies and authors. Ulrich [17] and Stoeger [18] for instance see functional strategies as a main lever for innovation power and implementation ability in an organization. From different functional strategies, the business impact of manufacturing strategy is the best-explored one. Several studies have confirmed that manufacturing strategy contributes substantially not only to manufacturing performance but also to business strategy, as measured by business unit performance on market share, growth, and profits [19][20]. The impact of manufacturing strategy may be a well explored one, but also other functional strategies have a positive impact for organizations; the vast majority of researchers agree that firms who follow clear functional strategies, have higher business performance and success [21][13]. Despite their importance, functional strategies are often neglected in the academic discussion [18]. However, it is not only important for organizations to have functional strategies, it is further recommended to have an alignment between functional strategies and higher strategic levels (business & corporate strategy) as well as an alignment between the respective functional strategies [20]. In this regard, the manufacturing - marketing linkage is perhaps one of the best developed [10]. In summary, five main objectives of functional strategies can be identified: concretion, integration, coordination, cooperation and selection [13]. Concretion means that functional strategies should specify the business strategy for each function and thus create a framework for operative management. They further should align the contents of functional strategies with the goals of higher strategic levels (integration). Not only an alignment with higher strategic levels is necessary, also an alignment between functional strategies is needed (coordination). Functional strategies should realize synergies through cooperation on a functional level, e.g. sharing of resources or transfer of resources between functions (cooperation). Finally, business functions should be enabled to make independent decisions due to their (technical) know-how, which is usually more comprehensive than in higher business levels (selection).

B. Role of engineering Engineering plays a central role in the life cycle of an industrial plant. It determines the functionality and quality of a plant and thus has impact on the whole plant life cycle. By the definition of the solution architecture and quality level, engineering also has influence on a large part of the total project costs (Fig. 3) [22][23]. According to different studies the percentage of engineering costs in project business is typically 5-10% of the total project costs [22][23][24].

Fig. 3: Influence of engineering on project costs [24]

Even though the engineering share of the total project costs is small, it has decisive influence on the total costs. About twothirds of the investment is already determined by engineering. Procurement and installation influence only about one-third of the project costs (Fig. 3) [22][23][24]. Strategies for engineering functions thus have a big lever on business performance. C. Need for research (interim conclusion) The literature search shows that there is extensive literature for corporate and business strategy. Researchers are aware of importance of functional strategy. However, compared to business and corporate strategies there are far less research activities. Further, there is a discrepancy of research activities for the respective functions, especially manufacturing and procurement and marketing are in focus [8] (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4: Database search in GoogleScholar for ‘functional strategy’, analysis of first 200 hits (1990-2013) as per July 2013.

Far less research can be found for functions such as supply chain, development or innovation. A closer look into operations management research showed that this research

field focuses on functional strategies, but mainly for manufacturing areas. In our literature review, we could not find any contributions which focused on engineering. In summary, the previous chapter has shown that (a) functional strategies play an important role for business success and (b) engineering has significant influence in the value chain. Despite their importance, research on functional strategies for engineering and other early development phases is scarce. V. STRATEGY CONSULTING OFFERS The literature review identified a lack of research for engineering strategies. In a next step, we want to examine if this lack is also relevant in the industrial practice. While in literature the differentiation by strategic levels is commonly used, consultant firms do often not differentiate between strategic levels or at least do not explicitly mention this difference. Nevertheless, offers range over all strategic levels, while corporate and business strategy are the most frequently offered consulting offers. Similar to the literature the most frequent strategies on a functional level were manufacturing, marketing and information technology (Table 1). Only Roland Berger mentioned consulting offer for engineering organizations (but did not use the term engineering strategy). This analysis only considered offers which were explicitly mentioned as strategy. Implicit descriptions of services and methods which can be seen related to strategy were not taken into account. Addressed strategic level firm corporate business functional McKinsey & Company x x HR, IN, IT, M x x HR, IN, IT, M, Boston Consulting OP Group Roland Berger x EN, HR, IN, IT, M, MA, OP, PR KPMG HR, MA PricewaterhouseCoopers x Accenture x MA Oliver Wyman Group x Deloitte Consulting x x M Booz & Company x x Bain & Company x x IT , MA A. T. Kearney x x Ernst & Young x ‘-‘: not specified, x: offered, HR – Human Resources, IN – innovation, M – marketing (incl. sales), IT – Information technology, MA – manufacturing, OP– operations, PR - procurement, EN engineering. Table.1: Strategy-related offers of management consultant firms (in order of turnover in Germany 2012) as per July 2013.

As a result, we see that functional strategies do play a role in management consulting. While the portfolio for marketing, innovation or IT strategies is well developed, the engineering function is neglected.

VI. NEED FOR RESEARCH Both literature and industry have – on a functional level – a strong focus on manufacturing and procurement, marketing innovation and IT strategies. Despite their importance research on functional strategies on engineering and other early life cycle phases are scarce. Therefore, this contribution aims to develop a reference process, which supports the development and implementation of functional strategies for engineering organizations. VII. ANALYSIS OF STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS In order to define a reference process for engineering strategy development we analyzed seven strategy projects which a large internationally active engineering company has conducted internally between 2009 and 2013. A. Overview The analyzed strategy development projects were conducted in the domains of energy plant business (5), industrial automation (1) and corporate functions (1). All projects, besides the corporate function project, were in operative business units. To get a first insight, the project documentation was analyzed. Then, for each strategy development project interviews with the project manager of the consulting unit were conducted. The focus of the evaluation laid on the strategy development process, the project motivation and setup, used tools and the results. B. Project motivation and setup A first finding is that two of those projects were initially not planned as strategy development projects. These projects were planned as general improvement projects first. During the course of the projects functional strategy was identified as a lever for improvement and the project was changed into a strategy development project. C. Strategy development approach The approach for strategy development was similar in all projects starting with an analysis of current situation of the organization and environment. Based on that input a strategy was developed and implemented. The last phase, the control phase, was not done but explicitly mentioned as a final step. Initial data collection in the analysis phase was mainly done by desk research, interviews and workshops. The most frequent technique in the development phase was the SWOT analysis. Further tools were stakeholder analysis (used in two projects) and a model for strategy goal setting named ‘strategy house’ (used in four projects). Root-cause-analysis and ABC analysis were each used in one project. D. Project results Besides the known tools and techniques for strategy development, we could identify two artifacts which are suitable for reuse in future strategy development projects:

1.

2.

Engineering policy. The engineering policy covers a general definition of terms and targets for the unit. Additionally, rules for internal and external collaboration with suppliers, partners and customers are given. At last the tool and process landscape is defined. It thus provides a common basis for all stakeholders and makes the benefit of the strategy project communicable to senior management. The ‘Engineering strategy house’ is a tool which visualizes operational and strategic targets of the engineering organization classified by their cost and revenue impact for the unit. The tool allows to derive a landscape of improvement projects showing the impact of improvement projects on the engineering strategy.

Tools / Methods

Activities

E. Success factors and challenges for strategy development projects For each project the interviewees were asked about the success factors and challenges in the project. Early stakeholder analyses, active customer integration in analysis and development phase as well as a close cooperation between different stakeholders were seen as major success factors. Also an early definition of stakeholders and the definition of a clear, Analyze - Check BU strategy and functional strategies to derive targets relevant for engineering - Analyze market: opportunities & threads for engineering - Identify key success factors of engineering business - Perform competitor benchmarking - Describe strengths and weaknesses of engineering organization - Evaluate performance of engineering organization - Identify core competencies - Record existing improvement projects - Analysis of environment o Gap analysis o PESTEL analysis o Porter´s Five Forces o Market analysis o Threads & opportunities - Analysis of engineering organization and analysis of function o Strengths-Weaknesses-analysis o Benchmarking o VRIO Framework o Value-chain analysis o Product life cycle analysis

stakeholder-specific communication concept proved to be essential for project success. Especially the support of one stakeholder – the senior management – was crucial for a successful implementation of the strategy. If a project was conducted without sufficient management support, a strategy was developed but could not be successfully implemented. A prerequisite of cooperation and integration is that a common understanding about the goals of strategy development must be addressed as early as possible. Interdisciplinary workshops proved to be a suitable way to ensure sufficient stakeholder integration. On the other hand, the strategy development projects faced several challenges: • • • • • • •

Develop - Identify fundamental strategic options - Develop competitive engineering strategy: Vision, strategic goals and operational goals (goals are structured according to cost and revenue impact) - Describe set-up of value chain and resource allocation - Identify impact of engineering strategy on portfolio and market - Align engineering strategy with BU strategy and functional strategies - Define communication concept - SWOT matrix - Scenario analysis - PIMS program - Strategy Clock (Bowman) - Delta model (Hax & Wilde) - SMART goals (Doran) - Portfolio analyses (e.g. BCG matrix, McKinsey matrix, etc.)

Unclear problem statement. A defined guideline for development process was missing. Strategy and its benefit are intangible. It is difficult to make the benefit communicable. No common understanding about terms and targets. No stakeholder analysis was done. Project focus was too narrow. Project organization was too complex. Implement - Adapt existing improvement projects to engineering strategy and define new improvement projects where necessary - Determine costs, benefits, opportunities and risks of improvement projects - Prioritize improvements projects - Define implementation roadmap - Implement and communicate engineering strategy

Control - Define KPIs to measure strategy implementation progress - Allocate responsibility for achieving strategy targets to employees - Control implementation of strategy and its targets - Accompany strategy implementation by an adequate change and risk management - Communicate implementation progress

- Balanced scorecard - Budgeting - Roadmapping

- Balanced scorecard - Documentation of lessons learned / best practices - After-Action-Review

BU – business unit, PESTEL - Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal analysis, VRIO – Value, Rarity, Imitability, Organization, SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threads , PIMS - Profit Impact of Market Strategy, SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound, BCG – Boston Consulting Group, KPI - Key Performance Indicator.

Tab. 2: Reference process for the development of engineering strategies

VIII. DEVELOPMENT OF A REFERENCE PROCESS

IX. LIMITATIONS

Most authors divide the strategy development process in four phases: strategic analysis, strategy development/formulation, strategy implementation, strategic control [25][26][27]. Those four phases could also be identified in the case study projects. Therefore, we use these phases as a basic structure for the reference process for the development of functional strategies for engineering departments.

We analyzed seven engineering strategy development projects. In order to avoid results that are too companyspecific, projects in various business domains were analyzed. However, certain specificity remains, especially with regard to proprietary tools.

The activities and tools in this model were derived from the analyzed projects and strategy development processes in the literature. However, they have been adapted to the specific characteristics of engineering. Proprietary tools were omitted, because of their limited availability for the public. A. Phase ‘Analyze’ The first phase is the As-Is-Analysis. It can be sub-divided into two sections. First is an analysis of the environment of the organization. This part addresses external conditions on which the organization only has limited influence. The second part consists of the analysis of the organization itself and the role of the functional unit in this organization. Here a top-downapproach is recommended. The analysis should start at the corporate level and examine how the higher business levels set a framework for the functional level. The data collection in the projects was done by interviews and workshops. B. Phase ‘Develop After corporate and business strategy of an organization have been analyzed, the contribution of engineering to these higher strategy levels must be defined (bottom-up-approach). This includes vision, strategic goals and operational goals. In this phase a set of templates for the results can be used, e.g. engineering policy and strategy house. The five objectives of functional strategies (chap. IV A) can be used to control the engineering strategy. C. Phase ‘Implement After a strategy has been defined, this phase aims to realize the strategy. Therefore an overview of improvement projects was created. Existing improvement projects are adapted to the targets of the engineering strategy and new ones are defined if necessary. Finally, a priorization is done based on costs, benefits, opportunities and risks of the improvement projects before starting the implementation. D. Phase ‘Control In the last phase the impact of implementing the improvement projects is measured. First step is the definition of KPIs to measure the strategy implementation progress. Standard instruments for the controlling are balanced scorecard and After-Action-Review. Organizations have to be aware that the implementation phase can last several years. Thus, controlling has to define not only short term goals, but also focus on long term objectives. In addition best practices and lessons learned should be identified and documented to enable continuous improvements for future development projects.

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