When Mann + Hummel looked to adopt an agile way of working, they brought in Skills Development Group for an agnostic approach to delivery.
The situation
For decades Mann + Hummel has been a global industry leader in filtration technology, recognised for providing the best products in this field. Headquartered in Germany, they now operate in 80 different locations around the world.
They attribute their success to innovation, not just in product development but in their approach to understanding the requirements of their customers and providing quality solutions that are future-oriented.
Mann + Hummel’s Internet of Things Lab (IoT) has a specific focus on intelligent technology and networked solutions in the area of filtration. They believe that digital transformation can further strengthen their market position.
The IoT Lab was already applying agile concepts and tools in development but as a diverse team, each of the members contributed to and interpreted agile concepts and methodologies based on their own experience and perspectives. “As a team, we collectively had our own view as to what agile meant − but we needed a more formal view,” said Ho Hsi Choong, Director IoT Labs. “
The solution
When selecting a delivery partner the team opted for Skills Development Group for a strong theoretical and practical perspective. "We chose Skills Development Group because we wanted external expert trainers and coaches that could provide an agnostic approach. We opted for training from a reputable source that could showcase their experience", said Mr Choong.
After working closely with the IoT Lab to define their goals and the learning outcomes that would most benefit their teams, Skills Development Group delivered agile training for project managers to help the IoT Lab members better understand what agile is, what their role is and how they can support self-organising agile teams.
For this to be truly effective and to ensure the approaches and tools were truly embedded, the team brought in an experienced scrum master from Skills Development Group to support a project team.
"We wanted to experience what scrum would mean for us. We needed someone to come in and role model for us in a real project, and also to come in and help us to set up an environment for scrum and show us how some of the tools are being used in a scrum project."
The result
Now, with hands-on experience using agile and scrum techniques and the knowledge of the principles behind each methodology, teams are working more effectively and efficiently to deliver quality products to their customers.
“We were building up towards a scrum approach already − we had established collaboration spaces and we had the scrum boards on all the walls. When Skills Development Group came in they provided improvements to take it to the next level, they introduced additional tools and built up our soft-skills.”
“The results have been enlightening. For the different challenges we’ve brought the Skills Development Group team in to address, we’ve been very happy with the outcomes. We’re much better placed to deliver on our objectives.”
