Porsche: Going Agile to make the cars of the future
Vehicle Manufacturing and IT merge together to build electric-powered, digitally focussed cars
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Porsche are one of the world’s most recognisable brands for their range of elite sport cars. Most notably though, Porsche have been the first company in the luxury car market to pivot effectively to using digital technologies and electric powered cars. Indeed, the Porsche Taycan, an electric car, outsold the iconic Porsche 911 last year. How did they manage to successfully pivot the business to these new technologies?
When Porsche was developing the first Panamera, vehicle manufacturing were struggling to develop the new car. It contained over 100 sensors and electronic components, making it more akin to a complex IT system than a traditional car. Struggling to manufacture this new solution, they turned to IT for help.
The Porsche Digital department had been running scaled agile for a period of time prior to this. They quickly added vehicle manufacturing to their process. They call the combined cadence within scaled agile the ‘Porsche heartbeat’, which drives the work across both departments. The team reorganised around agile principles, building cross-functional teams with greater ownership of the product. It had a marked improvement in the development speed, and Porsche were able to deliver a brilliant car.
Notably, the team had a particularly fruitful partnership on electric charging. This software / hardware combined challenge was ripe for a cross-functional team, and the group were able to develop a great charging experience that focussed on the customer. The team also focussed on a driving experience app - which used vehicle sensors to monitor driving performance and offer recommendations. It has been a huge success with Porsche owners.
This agile approach helped Porsche build the most successful cars (the Panamera and the Taycan) launched in years and delight customers. The team has now permanently changed its ways of working to a scaled agile approach that crosses the two departments.
Now Porsche runs at dual speed. For the traditional car manufacturing, the process still takes 3-4 years from idea to first production car. But all the digital aspects of the product run with the development time of the tech industry - pushing working software out in weeks rather than months. The team have changed their mindset that a car is not finished when it is handed over the customer - the digital customer demands further improvements to the software over time. They partner with the likes of Google, Apple and Tencent to work together and build the best possible product.
A great side effect of this new approach is that Porsche’s employees are now enjoying work more. By working on shorter projects with better feedback loops, the team are more engaged in the process and feel greater ownership of their work. Porsche discusses a german phrase for ‘fuel in the blood’, which means the energy to do good work. This has been improved by moving to agile ways of working.
Key to the shift was the communication and commitment from leadership. Particularly for the vehicle manufacturing department, this represented a big departure in their ways of working. Senior leadership spent a lot of time explaining why this was needed, and overcoming the resistance in the organisation.
It has paid off with better products, happier employees and more satisfied customers.
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