Stage gate management

David J. Soderberg, BP Chemicals You mentioned a very coherent and concise set of tools that are used portfolio management, fuzzy front end, and stage gate. Those work very well within a business unit context. They re very focused and allow you to allocate resources. 

This nine-quarter project is being managed in three phases, with Stage Gate reviews between each phase. These phases overlap in time in order to make efficient use of resources and minimize costs. 

In the near term, the development team will conclude the Phase 1 work and hold a Stage Gate review meeting with DOE management. Then, work on all aspects of Phase 2 will commence, followed by Phase... 

The development efforts are expected to build on preliminary work accomplished by the major partners. Air Products, as the overall project manager, is responsible for the total system integration and final development of the installed equipment. As the system integrator, Air Products will ensure that the system is fully optimized and that all of the individual components are compatible to deliver the lowest cost H2 fuel. This nine-quarter project is being managed in three phases, with Stage Gate reviews between each phase. 

TABLE 29.1 Applying the Stage-Gate Technique to Supply Chain Management... 

All projects within a company are not successful but all projects require time, resources, and money. The earlier bad projects are abandoned, the less investment in bad projects and the greater is the ability to put resources on other projects with a greater chance for success. There are different ways to choose which projects to back often it is merely a judgment by someone in upper management. There are more refined techniques to improve this process and Stage-Gate is a formalized method to judge projects. 

The stage gate process fails, of course, if management doesn t demand the preset deliverables before allowing a project to pass on to the next stage. It also fails if lower-priority projects aren t set aside for higher-priority projects or canceled outright. 

Is there a feasible and economic case for developing/expanding this mine/fixing this environmental problem If so, what scope of work can we confidently approve for construction Project management Stage-gate development of projects Teamwork Moving from analysis to action Communication Member or leader of smdy and project multidisciplinary project teams... 

Stage Gate SG2 forms the most important strategic milestone in the integrated life cycle becanse it determines the finther comse of the project. The developed design specification, the re-worked plans and the updated effort and cost estimates allow management to re-evaluate the project and to decide upon its future. If the decision is to continue the project, the activities of System Safety Assessment (SSA) and of system development are triggered. Those activities are monitored by project control. 

Cooper, R. G. (1990). Stage-gate systems A new tool for managing new products. Business Horizons, 55(3), 44-54. 

The approaches listed above have value for both individual company and supply chain applications. Two other techniques have particular value in improving SCM practice during product design (1) discovery-driven planning and (2) the employment of stages and gates to manage product introduction. Both tools have natural extensions to supply chain formulation as the product is developed. 

As a technical manager or process engineer or operator, you may have already acquired some good ideas for improving your plant and process unit. However, it is not an easy feat to persuade the technical committee to consider your ideas and then proceed to accept and evenmaUy implement them. I have observed many good ideas that have died in the infancy stage because they could not pass the evaluation gates. Such failure is commonly due to a lack of techno-economic assessment and communications. Remember, it is always necessary to sell your ideas to key stakeholders. 

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