Peer Check is a podcast for engineering leaders who want to challenge the status quo by finding better ways for design teams to work together.
Each episode features a conversation with an industry leader about how they’re innovating and the concrete steps they took to do it. If you’re looking to improve your team’s communication, collaboration, and decision-making, this is the place for you.
Welcome to Peer Check.
Large organizations are already complex. When you’re developing complex mechanical products, things get even tanglier.
But engineers are problem solvers. And with 28+ years of experience in operations and product management, Bob Scillia — Director of Program Management at Kennametal — has solved his share of business problems within engineering companies.
On this episode of Peer Check, Bob joins host Adam Keating to share what he’s learned over the years.
Listen as Bob and Adam chat about:
Why better product design starts with the user
Handling the challenges of a fluctuating business environment
How to gain alignment across people and teams
Why Design to Value (DTV) is an effective cost reduction strategy
What engineering leaders need to understand about large-scale business operations
22 Jun 2023
#24 - Turning suppliers into partners
Your suppliers have design expertise that you’re not tapping into. And that’s pretty common – because it’s challenging to get design feedback from your internal team, let alone suppliers. But the teams that do unlock supplier expertise are already achieving huge outcomes:
With the help of key suppliers, one company redesigned an entire product line from the ground up using off the shelf parts. As a result, they gained market share, as supply chain shortages and long lead times impacted competitors.
This is just one example. Other design teams are tapping into supplier expertise to:
Make products easier to manufacture and assemble
Improve margins by taking out cost
Achieve challenging specifications
And unlock more innovation
The benefits of strong supplier partnerships are clear. But how do you get there?
How about by learning from companies already at the forefront? Listen to a recorded panel discussion from CoLab, featuring special guests from Ford, iRobot, and Mainspring Energy, discussing how to turn suppliers into partners.
18 May 2023
#23 - Simplifying the handoff from design to production for Stage Gate NPD
If you’ve ever been involved in a Stage Gate process, you know one gate meeting causes the most stress — the hand off from engineering to production. After that, you make big investments – like tooling – and it’s hard to come back from a design error.
Still, with so much complexity, things can slip through the cracks. That’s why Adam Keating (CEO of CoLab Software) and Oleg Shilovitsky (CEO of OpenBOM) teamed up to share practical insights on how to improve this handoff and make NPI stress-free.
Why design freezes don’t always work — and how to instill confidence in your own
Bringing risk forward in Stage Gate
ECO management and cross-tier supplier collaboration
How one manufacturer released 300 drawings to suppliers with zero errors
What these examples have in common: the need for systems of engagement
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
23 ratings
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