Lord Corporation is a high end automotive and aerospace OEM. The Information Systems Department was struggling to meet the ever increasing demands of their clients. They were caught in the dilemma of maintaining existing applications, providing short term IS support while developing and implementing new information systems.

Client support was good and customers were very satisfied. But, poor performance on meeting project completion dates was making senior managers unhappy - almost all of the projects over the last five years finished late; many of them very late. In fact, on average they took 60% longer than estimated and giving specific completion dates to clients was avoided. Clearly the IS department had to change how they managed projects.

In collaboration with Vector Strategies, Lord Corporation soon realized dramatic improvements in delivering new applications - on time, at or below budget. The key was knowing when to start new projects and not exceeding available capacity. Eliminating multi-tasking by not over scheduling their people was crucial. According to Bob Morrison, IS Manager for Lord Corporation, "Job satisfaction is up and stress levels are down."

The improvements were truly impressive and achieved very quickly. Of the first 9 projects, 6 finished on time and 3 were early. Bob Morrison also stated, "We found an additional 60% capacity without hiring any additional people, we are doing twice as many projects and finishing them on time." The high level of responsiveness maintaining existent applications and providing short term IS customer support continues to be excellent.

Now, three years later, the TOC multi-project solution is still producing remarkable results and has become an integral part of Lord Corporation's culture.