Keithley Instruments’ Executive to Address Production Innovation Management Conference

Sept. 13, 2010 - PRLog -- Larry Pendergrass, vice president of new product development at Keithley Instruments, Inc. , a world leader in advanced electrical test instruments and systems, will be among the presenters at the 34th Annual Global Conference on Product Innovation Management. The theme of the conference, which is being sponsored by the Product Development and Management Association, is “Where Innovation Meets Product Development for Commercial Success.” The conference will be held on October 18-20, 2010, at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida.

Pendergrass’s presentation, “Tracking and Examination of Cycle Time and Schedule Accuracy Issues,” focuses on how managers in product development organizations can meaningfully measure cycle time when dealing with a highly dynamic product mix. The presentation draws on his experience in developing and enhancing Keithley’s product design management procedures.

The presentation focuses on simple methods and tools for tracking, examining, and reporting schedule slippage and cycle time issues. It also includes Pendergrass’s results of tracking and examining Keithley Instruments’ new product development efforts. Attendees will be asked to participate in real-time polls on how they handle major product development issues in their own organizations.

Pendergrass will also outline a number of Microsoft® Excel-based tools he has developed for tracking new product development projects:

• Monthly Project Update (MPU)
-          Contains general information about a project, such as critical features, target markets, and applications
-          Overall status, green/yellow/red for schedule, scope, project cost, resources
-          Schedule for project, current and benchmark
-          Revenue forecast and most recent financials
-          Project cost history and expectations
-          Changes to the project scope
-          Major risks and issues
-          Breakthroughs this month
• Slippage and Cycle Time Worksheets – These tools help Keithley identify at which stage in the new business development process schedule slippages occurred: concept, investigation, development, or pilot.
-          Projects range from a single circuit board to a full system
-          Measuring cycle time in weeks or months is inadequate – provides no information on whether the team is improving or the project is progressing fast enough.
-          Need to “normalize” a project’s duration, scaling it based on its difficulty.
-          Keithley defines a “scope score” on a scale of 1-10, with characteristics agreed upon between management and engineers.
• Slippage causes – The causes of schedule slippages are also tracked by category:
-          Impact from slip of another project
-          Prioritization of projects
-          Resource deflection to manufacturing issues
-          Changes in organizational expectations
-          Imposed and unrealistic schedules
-          Resource deflection to a special (to a single customer) product
-          Scope changes
-          Incomplete agreement on definition
-          Management of third-party vendors
-          Miscellaneous
-          Not enough time planning
-          Task/resource estimation (logistical or technical)
-          Weak pilot runs (due to process or product)

Larry Pendergrass has served as Keithley’s vice president of new product development since 2003. Previously, he served in a variety of posts for 22 years at Agilent Technologies. Larry holds a master’s degree in physics from the University of California, Davis, and a master’s in business administration from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

For More Information
For more information on Larry Pendergrass or Keithley's product design management processes, contact the company at:

Telephone:   888-534-8453, 440-248-0400
FAX:   440-248-6168
E-mail:   publisher@keithley.com
Internet:   www.keithley.com

Address:   Keithley Instruments, Inc.
   28775 Aurora Road
   Cleveland, OH 44139-1891

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About Keithley Instruments, Inc.
With more than 60 years of measurement expertise, Keithley Instruments has become a world leader in advanced electrical test instruments and systems. Our customers are scientists and engineers in the worldwide electronics industry involved with advanced materials research, semiconductor device development and fabrication, and the production of end products such as portable wireless devices. The value we provide them is a combination of products for their critical measurement needs and a rich understanding of their applications to improve the quality of their products and reduce their cost of test.