 |
Use of Crystal Ball Pro Provides TRW
With Increased Flexibility and Efficiency
CUSTOMER OF THE MONTH (AUG. 1998)
|
TRW Inc. is a global manufacturing and service company strategically
focused on providing advanced technology products and services with
a high technology or engineering content to the automotive, space
and defense and information technology markets. TRW is currently
engaged as the major contractor in a project consisting of several
consulting and high tech firms such as SAIC, RMS, JTA, CTA, and
ARNIC Corporation. This consortium of companies is charged with
completing the FAA's Office of System Architecture and Investment
Analysis (ASD) mission. Dennis Sawyer is the Task Area Manager of
Investment Analysis and Operation Research for TRW and has recently
begun employing Crystal Ball Pro in his day to day operations.
Prior to using Crystal Ball, Dennis and his talented team of financial,
systems and program analysts were forced to perform lengthy manual
calculations or use other risk analysis tools not as user-friendly
as Crystal Ball Pro. The switch to Crystal Ball Pro was facilitated
by a custom three-day training course for 30 analysts conducted
on-site by an experienced Decisioneering trainer and designed to
specifically address TRW's mission needs.
Specifically, Dennis and his team work with clients at the Federal
Aviation Administration to perform Cost/Benefit analysis on National
Airspace Automation Systems. These systems represent a portion of
the improvements that have been specified in the FAA Capital Investment
Plan (CIP). This plan is dedicated to advancing airspace safety,
reliability, and efficiency.
One of the several tasks Dennis and his team are responsible for
is to help estimate the lifecycle costs and benefits associated
with the airspace automation systems. Recently, Dennis' team has
used Crystal Ball Pro to assess risk in several programs and estimate
80% budget confidence levels. In one ongoing model, forty different
factors are varied based on historical information.
Crystal Ball Pro is playing an integral part in this process by
increasing the teams' flexibility and efficiency through reducing
the time and workload necessary to perform a traditional spreadsheet
analysis, and establishing higher confidence levels on the uncertain
future.
Crystal Ball Pro has also allowed the team to develop an easy method
for determining the factors that will potentially influence the
yearly and total cost of the program and then optimize the resulting
decisions. Using the Tornado Chart, the analysts may view these
factors based on the relative risk toward the program. This chart
along with the Overlay Chart, Trend Chart, and Create Report option
has the potential for reducing employee workload without compromising
product quality. The high-level of functionality provided by Crystal
Ball Pro combined with its ease of use has provided TRW and its
partners with a valuable tool to help identify the risks inherent
in these projects.
|
