Project Manager - methold validation of packaging weights

*Please note: the service contract for this position will not be concluded with Henkel AG & Co. KGaA but with an external party”.

Method validation: Calculation of packaging weights for insufficiently specified Henkel products 

Problem

Henkel needs to know the overall weight and materials of the packaging used for the Henkel products. Those parameters are determined based on the packaging BOM and specification data and the product sales data. Henkel specification data for determining the weight of packaging materials is not perfect, BOM data or the specification data can be missing or wrong. The fraction sales with such data cannot be neglected. Hence, the packaging weight of this fraction sales data has to be approximated. To that end, a python script has been developed and used for a comprehensive calculation of Henkel’s 2020 packaging data. This set of data will now be validated by the Henkel packaging experts. The validation exercise will be carried out in several iteration cycles. The expected number of iterations will be up to ten or until the most valuable product is created at least. Each cycle will result in change requests for the Python approximation algorithms.

Background of the engagement of an external consultant is that he has appropriate and required skills and capabilities that is not available internally. In addition the external consultant will provide services that are clearly distinguishable from the services internal employees are providing.

Task

The contractor coordinates the individual steps of the validation exercise independently. Initially the contractor defines the procedure of the validation exercise during a workshop with the packaging experts. Upfront the contractor receives all relevant contact information of the participants for the validation exercise + project steering committee and documentation of the current Python script, that has been developed during a previous project.

All Henkel products sold in a year are in scope. Python is the coding language. The code used for calculation the well-specified data is available to the project from a previous project. The developer of the Python algorithm participates in the validation exercise to implement change requests resulting from the validation exercise. 

Subtasks – Project Initiation

1. Prepare, organize, and conduct a project-relevant workshop with the project participants to establish common understanding of the project tasks, procedure/method of the validation exercise 
2. Development and documentation of a project plan for the validation exercise that will be validated and approved by Henkel. Afterwards it will be shared with all project contributors. 

Subtasks – Project Execution

1. Prepare, organize, and conduct 8 workshops to evaluate the validation findings with the packaging experts and programmer
2. Steering of the project plan
3. In case of delay, escalate to the project steering committee 
4. In the 8th workshop, review progress with steering committee and decide on stopping / continuing
5. After each workshop: Handover of change request and changed data to the programmer as input for refining the calculation
6. Prior to each workshop: 
7. Obtaining refined results from the programmer and screen refined results for outliers, abnormalities, implausible estimations.
8. Handover of refined results and screening observations to packaging experts

Used data:

Henkel sales data

Bill of Material data

Specification data for packaging materials

Types and calculated weights of materials

The goal is to refine the method for calculating packaging weights for insufficiently specified Henkel products.