Filtering Information

Ken was the project manager for supplying all the U$.$S$.$ manufactured wafer fabrication equipment for a Japanese high

technology company. One of the high$-$end pieces of equipment that Ken$$s customer was sourcing in the United States was

the ion milling machine. The subcontractor for ion milling machines was located in Virginia. Ken$$s customer ordered four ion

milling machines for their new wafer fabrication plant in Malaysia. Ken was heavily involved in putting together

specifications and shipment and delivery requirements for the ion milling machines. Ken visited the ion milling machine

subcontractor several times during the course of the project with and without his Japanese customer$$s representatives

joining him. The project was scheduled to complete in $10$ months. Ken was on the phone five days a week with his

subcontractor$$s project manager discussing the status of the project. Ken updated his Japanese customer$$s project

manager weekly on the progress made on the construction of ion milling machines.

The ion milling machine subcontractor built the best ones in the world at that time. While they were building my four

standard ion milling machines, they had a large order to build $20$ advanced ion milling machines from a very important

customer.

Everything they were doing for their important customer in their plant was blocked inside temporary plastic walls so that no

one else could see the advanced ion milling machines that were being built there. Whenever Ken chatted with their

engineers about their advanced product, their engineers were mum on the details. They only mentioned that these

advanced ion milling machines had a $10-$nanometer accuracy of uniform material removal from the surface of a $6-$inch

wafer. Ken had to manage the communication with his Japanese customer appropriately without getting them excited while

keeping their trust and respect in him and in his subcontractor at the highest level. Ken did not report to his Japanese

customer every little detail of the project. He gave them a weekly status summary of the project and a weekly updated

project schedule. There were several ups and downs every day regarding the ion milling machines$$ construction. Most of

the down issues were solved within at most two weeks. These minute details were between me and my subcontractor$$s

project manager. Some delays crept into my project due to the subcontractor$$s priority to his large advanced ion milling

machines order. Ken immediately hopped on a plane from California to Virginia and showed himself at the door of his

subcontractor and solved the project delay issues and other nagging issues face$-$to$-$face with him.

They always found a way to catch up to the schedule by authorizing some overtime or by finding an outside machine shop

that could build a component faster. Ken had to keep his credibility with his customer intact. By monitoring his subcontractor

very closely and by not disturbing his customer, they completed the project on time, but they ran $5\%$ over budget due to

several overtime authorizations. His customer was very happy with the results. Another issue was with his customer. His

customer$$s project manager insisted that they perform a long$-$term capability study on all ion milling machines before they

left the subcontractor$$s facility. However, the contract specified a short$-$term capability study requirement for all four

machines before delivery. A long$-$term capability study meant taking a lot more data while running the machines. This would

have delayed the shipments by at least two weeks and cost my subcontractor an extra $160$ man$-$hours of work.

Ken emphasized to his customer$$s project manager what their contract specified. Ken convinced him that the long$-$term

capability studies should be performed at his factory after receiving the ion milling machines. After several discussions, he

finally agreed with Ken. Ken did not even mention this extra work request from the customer to his subcontractor. Ken$$s

subcontractor was overstretched with respect to manpower. Ken had to protect him from his customer$$s extra requirements.

Communicating filtered information is the backbone of a project$$s control structure. How much information to pass on and

how much you want to disturb the cart are crucial factors during the life of a project. If every little detail regarding your

project goes up to your chief executive officer or goes to your customer, you are mismanaging your project. You have to

filter out the ripples in your communicated information. At the same time you have to realize what information and when to

inform your higher$-$ups and$/$or your customer without any delay. how can the strategies of Exploit,share and enhance be increased or encouraged in the project in the article