Research On Schedule Management Of VALEO Rear Fog Lamp Project

The growing expectation of consumer for individuation and diversification of car functions drives the product to update rapidly. Thus, the length of product R&D time of every link in automotive industry chain directly influences the competitiveness of the company. The R&D progress of auto lighting system involves complex subjects, and is easy to face unpredictable problem which will lead to the delay of the schedule and even effect the release of the whole car product if not solved timely. Therefore, there is a significant importance to research on the schedule management of auto lighting system R&D project.This paper researches on the schedule management of VALEO rear fog lamp R&D project based on critical chain technology. Main theories and methods include critical chain, constraints theory, CPM and PERT. In the process of project plan making based on critical chain technology, estimating the duration of each task by 50% completion probability can remove the safe time of the initial estimation; defining the critical chain by taking resource constraints into consideration and redistributing these key resources; control the risk of project delay using buffers. The effect is apparent, there is 53 days in advance of the whole project schedule, and the way of risk control is more efficient.In addition, in this paper, critical chain technology is used in project schedule controlling. The judgment of taking what measure depends on the analysis of both usage of buffers and the completion rate of the project. There is no need to take measures when the usage of buffers is under 1/3.It is essential to react quickly when the usage of buffers reaches 2/3 but the completion rate of project is under 2/3.Compared with the traditional project progress management methods, the critical chain adopted by this paper has several advantages:factors considering more comprehensive, time estimating more rigorous, risk prevention more scientific. Therefore, there is an important significant to solve the long cycle, high cost and incomplete management progress of VALEO rear fog lamp R&D project by using critical chain technology, provide some experience on project schedule management for reference in VALEO Foshan technical centre.