Quote:
Originally Posted by GTRMagic
Perhaps there is a timing issue of the software introduction, to replace Excel.
|
This should be required reading for this topic...
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/s...f1-revolution/
Effectively a video version of that article (previously posted a few pages back)...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WazUi6K4W6w
From the article...
Quote:
According to Vowles, the Excel spreadsheet was being migrated to a digital system at the same time the car’s “technology base” was going through its own colossal overhaul.
Unsurprisingly, doing both in tandem was a nightmare. Williams was completely changing how things were stored digitally within the organisation and the quantity of parts being produced to be logged in this new system people were unfamiliar with.
Delays led to workers having to sleep at the factory and effectively pull overnighters to get things ready. Vowles recalls the car was still just a big bag of bits by January, while Fry says: “If you go back to how we worked, whatever, 20 years ago, loads of bits would be late and someone will put their Superman underpants on over the outside of their trousers, rush round and save the day.
“We're still kind of working in that mode, really.
|
In short, the transition (which they are still in) has been painful. It sounds like they were just struggling to get two cars ready let along have appropriate spairs.
Introduction of anything like this doesn't create a well oiled machine overnight. It's not just about a specific tool, but the process it supports and in the end the thinking behind how you do all of this. See his culture comments below...
Quote:
|
Vowles reckons it’s a three-year process to get a 1000-strong workforce to fully adopt a new culture.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by GTRMagic
Wonder if it put anyone out of a gig to modernise this way. I somehow imagine a data entry operator keying into the Excel model from hell...
|
Cultural and process change like this is likely will to result in organization restructuring.
Why do any of this?...
Quote:
Fry reckons Williams’s process of making a car is inefficient, leaving everything “massively late” without a good performance-based reason for that being the case. Williams signed off the relevant aero surfaces quite early in the process yet was still somehow scrambling around for parts late on.
That’s because the flawed processes caused a mountain of parts to pile up, delaying production. It wasted time, and wasn’t cost efficient either, which is relevant in F1’s budget cap era. Fry says what Williams managed to do this winter was “viciously expensive”
|
Richard