DVN was invited to visit Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) at their development centre in Gaydon, not far from Birmingham, England. It’s a brand-new facility, huge like an airport with really impressive architecture.
I have seen a surprisingly fresh culture and the most modern development processes in the industry. Everything runs to a new agile process across the whole development process so people can focus on value-added increments and short milestones. Everyone is working to the same drumbeat. A new mindset—or, let’s say, a total cultural change—was necessary to accelerate the end-to-end progress, compared with the classic development process. A guiding principle is fail fast and don’t be scared to try.
The whole lighting team consists today of 120 people and has been growing very fast. In the last six years it has doubled in size every two years. The new lighting organisation has been divided into different squads like the electronics squad, software squad, mechanical, and interior lighting squad. It is a truly global team and essential that a lot of daily interaction takes place amongst these squads and the lighting core team and program delivery teams, including several validation teams in India as well as those such as legacy teams located in Romania and newly in China.
The working process with the suppliers is also different to the normal industry procedure because all are working to the same “North Star”. Joint 15-minutes meetings are the normal start to the working day. All squads manage themselves. The JLR people say the result is more collaboration and more fun.
All in all, I saw a company on the move. I met an enthusiastic, big lighting team of (mainly young) women and men from all over the world, who asked nearly more questions than I was asking. What a spirit!
I remind you the exceptional event boasts probably the best program ever in the 15-strong history of DVN Workshops. It’s sure to be a don’t-miss event, so register to attend here, and book your room here. Don’t wait; the event and hotel are filling up quickly!