Disclosure: For several years I have been having this internal dialog with myself about mixing an early semi-retirement with car building. Specifically how to retire from the business that I am in and taking a significant salary reduction but getting the opportunity to work in a custom car building environment.
I have spent the last 15 or so years building teams that design and implement custom software solutions. Prior to that I spent 10 years with Lexus 2 years with Jaguar and a few of my formative years at a race engine shop and a corvette restoration company.
In the last 5 or so I have been using Lean/Agile methods to deliver custom software solutions to big banks and financial institutions. The adoption of these practices has increased quality, customer stratification and profit while simultaneously reducing time to market. I would love to explore if I could replicate these successes in the context of custom car projects.
It got me thinking... could these principles help solve the problems that plague the custom car customer? Over budget, scope creep.... body shop hell... call it whatever you like... typically what you end up with is paying too much for less than you expected and getting it later than promised. Meanwhile the builder feels like he lost money...
Problem 1: I will be far too old and unskilled to be a hands on craftsperson.
Problem 2: The business itself is plagued with bad business practice (the ole better craftsmen then businessmen issue)
Problem 3: Every build by its nature is custom and as such subject to lots of uncertainty.
Problem 4: To my knowledge no structured project management principles have precedence in the custom car world.
So on to my question.. Is this pipe-dream something that the pro-builders and customers would have an appetite for?
Is there a problem here worth solving?
My experience and reading on this forum and others leads me to believe that from the customers point of view there has to be a better way of doing things. From a shop point of view the idea of increased productivity, higher profit and more satisfied customers is a win win. I was wondering if something like doing a project in a “Lean or Agile” structured way via these methods would be attractive to anyone?
Referance Lean in the construction buisness:
http://ennova.com.au/blog/2011/09/ag...d-construction