COLD CHAIN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Goods such as perishable foods, temperature sensitive pharmaceuticals and certain industrial chemicals must not only be kept refrigerated but, in many cases, must be stored within a narrow band of temperatures all through the supply chain.  The equipment and software required to maintain and monitor this temperature continuity are known as a cold chain.

A leading supplier of cold chain solution (a division of a Fortune 100 company) sought the establishment of an integrated testing and development center in China.  The company was familiar with outsourcing hardware related aspects of their operations and saw an opportunity to create new efficiencies and leverage by moving aspects of their software program offshore. 

The company’s products are required to perform without failure as such an event could impact public safety as well as lead to substantial economic costs. 

The services from the Offshore Development Center (ODC) it was seeking to establish must therefore operate at the highest standards.  The client sought to reduce the cost of the testing process while at the same time increasing the range of tests performed.

Provided that the testing group performed well, the company also planned to establish software development capability offshore.

Further, the software team at the ODC needed to become tightly integrated into the operations of the US based company in order for the combined onshore/offshore teams to innovate for the future.

The objective was to create a truly integrated ODC that was an extension of the US operation.

After Bamboo was selected as the company’s offshore partner a plan was developed to minimize risk, capture performance data and continuously improve the ODC and team.

PRODUCT COMPANY IMPROVED PROFIT MARGINS

A major supplier of cold chain logistics systems was able to significantly reduce their product development costs and improve margins by outsourcing their testing and development work to a dedicated ODC run by Bamboo in Guangzhou, China. They were able to reduce their development costs by over 60% relative to inhouse US costs.

A Freeze on Costs Wanted

A leading global provider of cold chain solutions approached Bamboo to setup an Offshore Development Center in China.  The ODC was to prove itself by handling simple and complex, automated testing. Assuming successful early stages, the ODC would expand into development seeking faster product development cycle time along with high quality and low cost.  The ODC would be a virtual extension of the Company’s development groups and need to be equipped with ‘ready to serve’ facilities and a team comprised of trained domain specialists to fulfill project requirements. 

Bamboo Delivered

Bamboo implemented an ODC in Guangzhou, China that was dedicated to this client. Initially, the prime focus of the ODC was to provide Bamboo’s Application Testing Services (ATS), a suite of services that is designed to systematically test a full range of functionality across software components. Given the client’s specific requirements, Bamboo also established a facility to handle certain RFID hardware tests as well.  We quickly began identifying software defects and making changes to remove the defects from the finished products.

At the initial setup stage, Bamboo brought to the ODC a core team averaging over 9 years of practical experience in architecting, designing, implementing, integrating, testing, deploying and maintaining mission critical software applications. This core team has developed complete knowledge of the client’s business and technology becoming an essential part of the product development cycle. This has led to a continuous growth in the work that is allocated to the China ODC.

After the ODC team had proven their capability, the level of complexity of new projects grew, and the level of oversight from the US decreased.  A critical milestone was the successful completion of a new product developed entirely offshore.  This product was completed four months ahead of the original schedule.

Ongoing work in the ODC includes core product development, testing, maintenance and R&D.  All projects are implementing using the CMMI Level 5 certified Bamboo Quality System (BQS) methodology.

Mission Accomplished

The ODC achieved over 30% cost savings (productivity weighted) in the initial setup year and is presently saving the client more than 70% each year. Further, combined R&D, development and testing operations at the ODC have allowed the client to reduce their release cycle by six months, meaning that they are able to stay way ahead of the competition.

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