Learn how Prysm made the true "15-minute" meeting with PAS
Challenge
Over the course of early 2018, the Prysm panel design and manufacturing teams were charged with finalizing the design of the Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) 6K panel and ramping production ahead of customer demand.
The near-term task was to transition the manufacturing team from a cohort that supports engineering prototype builds over to a full-scale mass-production operation supporting worldwide shipments.
To make this transition, Prysm manufacturing had to formalize all production, including assembly, quality and test procedures. This was in addition to:
- Establishing daily, weekly and quarterly production plans
- Integrating key supply chain partners into overall planning models
- Defining measurable KPIs for build and ship metrics
Being a small but agile team, having the ability to not only plan but to adjust quickly to challenges and changing conditions, was paramount.
Early in the transition, the team implemented a daily 15-minute stand-up meeting to bring all functional leaders and senior technical leads together to discuss plans and progress. The “15-minute” meeting typically took one hour. Everyone had a report to give, and everyone had multiple source documents to present alongside them.
The collaboration centered around a 65” video display using site-stored Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint files and pictures.
Although the meeting consistently ran four times too long, the team could not compromise on the valuable collaboration provided by reviewing and adjusting to product development results, production readiness milestones and key supplier feedback. They compromised on time, not content.
Solution
Realizing that as business picked up, the hour-long stand-up meeting would be harder to find time for, the team launched a project to explore the use of Prysm’s Application Software (PAS) as a way to streamline information sharing.
PAS is a cloud based collaborative software application that allows local and remote teams to share, view and collaborate on data and information from any device – in real-time, dynamically and persistently.
Through its ability to integrate multiple sources of information into an easy to present and manipulate backdrop, PAS appeared to be a tool well adapted to the daily “15-minute” stand-up meeting.
Starting with an existing touch-enabled TD2-based video wall (i.e., a 190” tiled video wall using Prysm’s TD2 LPD tiles), a subset of the team began brainstorming how best to represent the 60 minutes of content being shared in a much more manageable timeframe. The goal was for cross-departmental leadership to jointly:
- Identify issues
- Track progress against milestones
- Make faster decisions
- Return the team’s focus to working on their product, rather than sitting in a daily meeting talking about what they were planning to do
Integrated Workspace:
As shown in Figure 1, an early version of the integrated workspace has a static image anchored to the background that provides organized space for:
- High level shipment demand planning
- Major production work cells (arranged in their logical flow)
- Finished inventory/product shipments section
All combined, the workspace became a visual, intuitive daily stand-up meeting dashboard.
Figure 1: Early version of consolidated daily dashboard
Within each column, subsections captured work in process (WIP) inventory counts and process yield information.
As pictured in the lower left corner of Figure 1, there is a small image of an Excel spreadsheet. This sheet is an active Excel file linked via a corporate directory location that contained detailed customer ship date information. The PAS software allows for displayed files to be dynamically sized, expanded, and contracted as needed. This enables immediate display of an element for group discussion and then the ability to move the item out of the way once the discussion point is over, without breaking the cadence of the meeting.
Embedded in PAS are multiple user tools for creating content within the workspace. Shown in Figure 1 is use of the embedded “sticky note” to create an individual memo where text has been added. This early version used sticky notes to outline pertinent manufacturing build information as well as a notably needed facilities repair. As with any attached object (e.g., Excel file, picture, graphic), the sticky notes are resizable and movable. This format enables a large volume of critical information for the day-to-day development and manufacturing process to be presented and digested quickly.
This early version was a leap forward, providing a first step in streamlining the presentation of milestones, offering a platform to provide updates on actions and the ability to reset plans based on real-time updates. The team quickly embraced the use of the tool and looked for ways to make further progress to move the company agenda forward.
Integrated Workspace V 2.0:
Figure 2 is a refined version of the original dashboard. Overall aesthetics, markers for attachments of additional data, sizing, placement and color coding of the sticky notes, were improved.
Figure 2: Later version of the consolidated dashboard
An example of an action item during a stand-up session, Figure 3 illustrates an extreme close-up of an in-process defect taken on the production floor. The team was able to load the image into the workspace ahead of the meeting, which allowed for quick expansion of the image, discussion of the defect and assigning an immediate next step, all in minimal time. Previously, this type of discussion would have easily taken the full 15 minutes – or more – for a team member to connect to the video display, find the image, bring it up, discuss the issue, then turn the video display back over to the meeting host to continue with the meeting.
Figure 3: Process defect
Ongoing use of the dashboard promoted the continual refinement of structure and presentation of information mirroring the maturation of the design-to-volume manufacturing life-cycle process. Currently, the team is using the further refined dashboard shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Current version of the consolidated dashboard
Introduced in Figure 4 is the extensive use of another embedded PAS customer tool, the text box. Each of the individual text items is created and updated using the text box. This item, much like the sticky note, can be sized by expanding and contracting, moved via keyboard or touch from one column to next, and color-shifted easily. Using the text box allowed users to add a large amount of information without cluttering up the workspace. It quickly conveyed product and process status in a single view.
Not all topics addressed during the meeting are about process defects or issues to be resolved. Figure 5 is a picture taken by a field technician at the completion of a recent customer LPD 6K installation. We have successfully produced many panels at the Concord, MA, site that are now being installed at customer sites around the globe. Showing the finished installation to the team during the meeting is a morale boost for a job well done.
Figure 5: LPD 6K wall customer installation picture prior to customer turn over
At the end of each meeting, a snapshot of the dashboard is taken (using an embedded PAS tool) and stored as a retrievable file. This file can be immediately sent to anyone unable to attend that morning’s session, as well as serving as an archive of what was decided in that session, should it ever need to be reviewed.
Welcome to the True “15-Minute” Meeting:
Like most companies, Prysm has executive team members in different locations who are traveling often. PAS is a cloud based application, where all team members, regardless of location, have access to the dashboard and can see and fully engage in the daily meetings from any laptop, tablet or cell phone.
PAS works with or without Prysm displays, making the shared workspace appliance-agnostic. Team members worldwide, key suppliers, and any approved party can share information in real-time as it’s being created or accessed and/or on their schedules. Time zones and geography are no longer a barrier to manufacturing productivity.
And yes, the daily 15-minute meeting is now 15 minutes.
