Success Assured®
Confidently make decisions
you won't need to change!
Better Collaborative Problem-Solving
Numerous surveys and studies have concluded the same thing:
Organizations' #1 need is Better Problem-Solving!
If that is you, then you've come to the right place. This combination of sophisticated problem-solving software tools along with workshops and on-the-job training is unmatched.
Better Complex Decision-Making
Still using Excel and PowerPoint in long, painful meetings to try to make complex decisions intelligently? If so, Success Assured® software is an innovative alternative that avoids the long list of problems that come with using spreadsheets and slideware for complex decision-making.
Better Multi-Dimensional Trade Studies
As your customers and competition advance, your optimization requirements become more challenging and the complexity of the trade-offs rises. As a result, the trade studies you need to run tend to be far more than just the 3 dimensions your brains can see. Your decision-makers need to be able to rapidly navigate around in 5, 10, or more dimensional trade spaces to gain an accurate understanding of the sensitivities to and impacts of the decisions they are making. Success Assured® software is designed to enable that!
Click here for better multi-dimensional trade studies.
Note: If your organization already does MDAO/MDO or you are an expert in MDAO/MDO, then the prior link may be interesting to you, but you may be confused on how it is different from the MDAO you already do. To get clarity on that, we suggest you first visit Better MDO/MDAO. (If you don’t do/know MDAO, then this latter link would be irrelevant to you, just go direct to the above link on better trade studies.)
Better Scaled Agile for Hardware
Hardware development organizations have begun to embrace the Agile practices that have been so successful in software organizations. However, making Agile effective in hardware organizations requires more than just "scaling"; it requires a shift from point-based to set-based decision-making. Success Assured® software and training can enable that shift!
Better Systems & Mission Engineering
While great strides have been made with the Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) efforts, there's a need for complementary efforts in the earliest stages of the systems & mission engineering processes, where uncertainty is high, but key decisions have to be made. For that, set-based models and analyses are needed; Success Assured® software and training will enable that.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Better Product & Process Development
Are you having trouble shifting your organization's focus to your next big product/project because your people are constantly pulled back onto the prior project(s) to fix yet another problem? 65-75% of today's engineering capacity is consumed with rework! Using Success Assured® software enables set-based concurrent engineering practices that will eliminate that rework, thereby increasing your engineering productivity 4X and cutting your development cycle times in half!
Better RFP/RFQ Response
A tremendous number of key decisions are made (or assumed) in the response to an RFP/RFQ; and nowhere are the uncertainties and time pressures greater. Success Assured® software's unique combination of set-based (to enable dealing with that uncertainty) and rapid multi-dimensional trade-off analysis (to enable knowledge-based modeling ahead of early decision-making) is game-changing!
Better Risk Management (& Elimination)
Is Risk Management a major activity in your organization? If so, do those risks tend to just pile up over time, because at each gate the pressure to meet schedule drives the decision-making more than the weight of those risks that you've piled onto that "train" you can't afford to stop?
What if there were software tools and a process by which you could actively reduce and eliminate risks very early, before the key decisions are made?
Click here for better risk management & elimination. (link coming soon)
Better Failure Mode & Effects Analysis
Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA) has been a standardized part of the aerospace and automotive industries for decades. The automotive industry recently overhauled their FMEA standards to allow it to be moved earlier in the process, where it can be more effective. However, to allow it to move to the front of the process where it belongs, ahead of most of the key decision-making, you need to shift your FMEA and decision-making to being set-based rather than point-based. Success Assured® software tools and training will make that possible!
Click here for better failure mode & effects analysis (FMEA).
About Us
Based on the "set-based" and "success is assured" behaviors seen in the early aircraft industry starting with the Wright Brothers and further refined in the highly productive Toyota Product Development System, we have developed an optimized set of software tools and processes that together enable fundamental changes to numerous critical business processes, such as those listed above.
To learn more about how we can help your team "confidently make decisions you won't need to change", click on the appropriate link above. To gain a little experience with "set-based" practices while having a little fun, play these Set-Based Games. To dig deeper into the tools and processes that enable that game-changing decision-making, read our latest book...
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Our roots are Texas Instruments and i2 Technologies.
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Our methodology was inspired by the Wright Brothers' innovation process, honed by the early aerospace industry, and then refined and optimized in the Toyota Product Development System, which was then directly studied by our colleague Dr. Allen Ward.
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We have found our primary traction in industries where they can't ship faulty products because people will die (e.g., aerospace and medical devices), so establishing "Success is Assured" is particularly valuable.
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We have established security clearances enabling us to work with teams working on classified material.
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Our leadership team:
Michael
Kennedy
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31 years in TI's Defense Systems Group (now part of Raytheon).
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Responsible for the Development Process that earned TI the Malcolm Baldrige award.
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Worked with Allen Ward on applying Toyota practices to western companies.
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Frequent keynote speaker at numerous conferences.
CEO
Kent
Harmon
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22 years in TI's Semiconductor group managing 3 product lines.
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His process improvements lead to him being assigned to deploy those best practices across 24 organizations in six countries as the Director of R&D Effectiveness.
VP, Training
Brian
Kennedy
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12 years at i2; was Chief Architect of i2's Supply Chain Planner and Demand Fulfillment apps that saved i2 customers tens of billions of dollars.
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Awarded more than a dozen patents on the inventions that enabled that.
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INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP)
CTO
Contact Us
If you have questions, would like a demo, or would like to schedule us to visit you, please email us at Answers@TargetedConvergence.Com. Alternatively, you may call us at 1-888-LRN-FRST (1-888-576-3778). Either way, we'll route you to the right person.
Or if you prefer, you can send email direct to:
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Our Sales Team at Sales@TargetedConvergence.Com.
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Our On-the-Job Coaching Team at Mentors@TargetedConvergence.Com.
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Our Software Support Team at Support@TargetedConvergence.Com.
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Our Website Team at Webmaster@TargetedConvergence.Com.
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Our Accounting Team at Accounting@TargetedConvergence.Com.
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Our Human Resources Team at HR@TargetedConvergence.Com.
After 10 years in Carrollton, we have moved a few miles south to the Dallas Communications Complex in the prestigious Las Colinas region of Irving, TX:
Targeted Convergence Corporation
400 E Royal Ln Ste 290 Bldg 3
Irving, TX 75039-3602
You can visit (and Like! or Follow) us at our official pages on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google Maps.
And now we have published a complete how-to manual, capturing our best practices from over 10 years of training organizations in a variety of industries how to establish that "Success is Assured" prior to making critical decisions.
We authored the first book on the Toyota Product Development System...
We authored the first book with case studies showing the benefits of adopting Lean Product Development practices...
