Clean Energy Product Development & Customer Service Process Improvement

​SITUATION

• A $10B Energy client’s recently launched energy efficiency (EE) service program failed to deliver the desired energy savings after its first year in market.

• Success was undermined by high process cycle times, low market uptake, and suboptimal coordination of the many internal and external stakeholders

• With 3 additional programs planned for market introduction within a year, the clients hoped to both improve the existing program, and build internal capacity and capability for future program success as well

ACTION

• Guide client team in redesigning and relaunching the EE service program - Provide day-to-day project team facilitation, proactively managing the schedule-scope-resource tradeoff while maintaining focus on critical path elements and key levers that will improve overall program effectiveness 

• Improve service process cycle time by applying principles of lean operations - Use lean manufacturing principles of cycle-time reduction (i.e.- theoretical minimum cycle times, bottleneck management, elimination of redundant activities, and conference room pilots) to optimize the process

• Coach client team members in product development and project management best practices - Show core team how to effectively utilize product development tools, templates, and governance structure to gain organizational buy-in and improve program effectiveness

  • Program design

  • Vendor selection, contracting, and management

  • Marketing & sales plan development and execution

  • Training development and execution

  • IT system development and testing

  • Metrics collection and performance tracking

RESULTS

• Positioned client to exceed the state mandated electricity load reduction goal, increasing energy savings by more than 17x within nine months

• Achieved 39% reduction in cycle time compared to the prior year’s program

• Trained more than 175 employees and subcontractors on the new service process and tools through eight training workshops 

• Developed, tested, and launched the new IT software module to enable smoother application processing and reporting 

• Groomed stronger and more capable staff who can now better lead and manage product development and project management initiatives