Learning Launch

Challenge

Spare parts are fundamental to maintaining the availability of production trucks in the mining  industries. Unfortunately, sourcing in remote areas of Africa often remains difficult. Indeed, parts  must be ordered and then transported through a long supply chain where delivery time is often to  the detriment of the requesters. Even worse, if the right part is not delivered, the entire production  schedule often has to be revised.

As a supplier of spare parts, mainly serving mining companies in the West African zone, I have an IT  platform that centralizes my spare parts servicing activity. My challenge is to create a simple  technology that buyers from different companies can easily access considering that most mining  companies operate in remote areas with limited access to Internet services. This project includes the  IT staff, as well as the purchasers and the method preparers of the SOMA partner company's engine  maintenance services.

The project is managed by volunteer time on a schedule of no more than 10 weeks for our  development team to deliver a prototype software solution. Our partners from the mining company  SOMA will help us structure the first prototype of the technology so that we can test it with our main  users.

Once the prototype has been developed, our technical sales team will conduct the first marketing  study.

Selection

After consultation, our team decided to use the learning launch tool. The idea was to develop an  effective, yet simple-to-use technology to make it easier for users to test searches. In collaboration  with method preparers and SOMA buyers, we conducted several conceptual thinking activities and  developed a software prototype that will help us go through an iterative process that will allow us to  improve our solution idea with teams from other mining companies in the sub-region.

Application

Our first launch was to introduce a web application, available through the internet to allow all  customers to connect to it from anywhere in the world. This application presented functionalities  allowing to search for spare parts from references and providing synoptic and functional diagrams of  the different parts. The aim was to ensure that by using part numbers to search information in a  database previously supplied by the parts manufacturers, operators would now order the right spare  parts. But after a long observation, we realized that :

- Firstly, the cost aspect was missing, which was of great interest to buyers in order to align with  budgets.

- Secondly, most customers would have difficulty using the platform because of their geographical  location, which limited or required them to have an internet connection due to their location.

We spent the next 3 days with our project team to improve our prototype by integrating the cost of  parts into it. We worked on several alternatives and finally decided to use a web application,  available from DVDs that could be used offline on desktops.

Insight

By applying the learning tool, we have designed and tested our solutions. Thanks to this process, we  were able to improve our web application to meet user expectations. This process showed us that  our method preparers and buyers were more comfortable with the second web application. Our  technical sales department used the test results to review our strategic direction. In the future, our  company will adopt similar approaches to offering products and services.

Approach

The learning launch is the right tool for our company. As a team, we need to review the knowledge  gained from our initial launches and integrate this information into future launch designs. This allows  us to effectively address and highlight solutions. In the future, launch designs will project themselves  through the knowledge highlighted, as well as the progress made to get closer to a convincing out-of- the-box solution.

