Simplicity and high bar

By prioritizing the working product, the second value of Agile inherently encourages increasing the functionality and usability of the product – its continuous improvement. For teams working on electric vehicle projects, improvement is not an option, but a necessity. An electric car must improve in many areas, such as range, charging time, reliability, and price. To achieve this, key components such as batteries and electric motors must be continuously improved in both design and production.

To foster creativity and successful implementation of innovative ideas in project teams, GERMANENGINEER.COM implements the following practical strategies:

1. Simplicity

This strategy encourages the project team to minimize the amount of work (including non-value-added work) and its complexity. Simple tasks can be automated to get the job done better and faster.

GERMANENGINEER.COM focuses on explaining why the team should strive for simplicity and what benefits or rewards the team can expect if they succeed. The idea is not to get more work done in less time, but to use the extra time for self-improvement. This unleashes the team’s creativity, and people begin to optimize the processes around them, creating innovative assembly line technologies, modern workplaces, and high-quality factory jobs.

2. High Bar

A high bar is necessary to ensure that you cannot simply copy your old solution. It also prohibits you from digging through documentation to find solutions that have already been done by others. Elon Musk’s directive for Tesla to produce 20 million cars per year – as many as Toyota and VW combined – is a great example of inspiring Tesla’s teams to innovate in the style of the second value of the Agile Manifesto. By setting the bar so high, Tesla engineers are encouraged to experiment and develop truly innovative approaches to design and manufacturing.

GERMANENGINEER.COM constantly raises the bar to keep project teams thinking about improvement rather than getting bogged down in routine work.