Accelerating product development for energy transition in the Netherlands
Why the energy transition?
The energy transition is the transition from the use of fossil energy to energy from renewable sources. As a result, the supply of electricity fluctuates more and does not always match the increased demand. The electricity network is not designed to cope with this. Companies and households in the Netherlands are supplying more and more electricity and need more and more electricity. There is insufficient capacity on the power grid to meet the demand and therefore an energy transition of the energy infrastructure is needed to better match supply and demand. Besides making better use of the current electricity grid with, for example, smart controllable heat pumps, the accelerated expansion and upgrade of the Dutch electricity infrastructure is the top priority of national and regional grid operators. Billions are being invested to accelerate these expansions, for example in the form of expansion and replacement of high-voltage substations.
Contact Esmée E-mail: e.bertens@synergio.nl Phone: +31 6 2960 0481
Key challenges for energy transition
The energy transition involves large-scale changes to the Dutch energy infrastructure. These are complex because of the critical nature of energy supply and the risks associated with change. Building with the store open is challenging and strict standards and laws and regulations apply to ensure reliability, durability and availability. The energy transition creates a number of significant challenges for Dutch and local grid operators:
Innovation
The change in energy supply and demand requires new technologies and innovative solutions.
This requires an iterative process of research, prototyping, testing and improvement.
The pace of technological advancement must be high to meet increasing demand.
Collaboration
Energy infrastructure projects require collaboration between various stakeholders, such as grid operators, technology companies, contractors, governments and research institutions.
Effective collaboration and communication are crucial to bring together different knowledge domains and interests.
Complexity
Developing integrated systems (hardware and software) involves complexity.
Synchronizing different technologies and ensuring that they integrate seamlessly is a major challenge.
But the complex integration of energy infrastructure into the environment also creates challenges that must be managed.
Build fast
The pressure to develop new solutions quickly is high.
This requires on the one hand standardization of solutions and on the other hand efficient product development processes that can react quickly to changes in the market and technology.
Balancing speed with diligence is an ongoing challenge.
Product development in energy infrastructure
The energy transition in the Netherlands involves significant restructuring of the energy infrastructure.
Important components of the Dutch energy infrastructure that need to be expanded and/or renewed are:
Electricity network
This includes the use of smart meters and advanced monitoring and management systems.
Energy Storage
Heat grids
Charging infrastructure
Digitization
Acceleration of product development
Many new energy systems need to be developed and this requires a huge acceleration of the energy infrastructure product development process while maintaining quality, reliability, sustainability and availability.
This will require a different approach than has been used to date.
Product development accelerators for the energy transition
Key product development accelerators at a glance.
Innovation
Innovation is often a “fuzzy” process in its early stages.
This is because it is not yet about developing a product but building the knowledge needed to make crucial design choices and confident decisions so that you can develop the product accordingly.
Rapid Learning Cycles
Rapid Learning Cycles is a framework that allows you to build knowledge quickly and iteratively to make better choices and/or decisions.
We also call these choices/decisions Key Decisions.
Especially when a key decision has a crucial impact on the product and the knowledge to make the decision with confidence is missing, it is important to build this knowledge first before starting development.
This avoids high failure costs, delays in time-to-market and frustration among development teams and management.
Customer case
Read how one of our clients applied Rapid Learning Cycles to the development of a new, innovative product.
Standardization
Modular design is a method that uses standard designs (called modules or building blocks) that together form a system solution.
This greatly simplifies and speeds up the process of designing, planning and implementing projects.
Modular design
(Model-based)
Systems Engineering helps in modular design of system architecture and standard components.
It makes complexity more manageable through visual models.
It also creates a single source of truth which improves consistency and is a prerequisite for reuse.
Libraries
Libraries of standard modular components and specifications significantly accelerate the development of complex products in terms of communication, consistency, documentation, traceability, integration and verification.
Reuse
Based on standardized, modular components made available to projects from a library, costs and development time are reduced and products can be brought to market faster.
Continuous learning & improvement
Continuous learning and improvement is a process and not a “lessons learned” document that disappears into a drawer.
Make continuous learning and improvement an integral part of the product development process.
Organize continuous learning and improvement as an iterative process so that the product and the product development process improves step by step.
Read more about continuous learning and improvement here.
Customer case
Read how one of our customers implemented Continuous Learning & Improvement as an integral part of the product development process.
Strategic portfolio management
Strategic Portfolio Management links strategy and execution.
You define strategic themes and link them to objectives.
You then initiate change and improvement initiatives in line with the strategic themes.
You divide these initiatives into work packages and allocate them to the teams that execute them.
You execute the work iteratively so you keep your finger on the pulse and deliver when there is sufficient value.
The new functionality is used and you measure its contribution to the defined objective.
Read more about Strategic Portfolio Management here.
Iterative development
Agile and Lean methodologies are designed to increase the speed and flexibility of product development by breaking down the work into small work packages that can be delivered in a short-cycle manner by development teams.
Agile and Lean product development methods are not only suitable for software development.
Agile and Lean methods evolved from the development of physical products and are perfectly applicable there as well.
Scrum, Kanban, SAFe
Agile frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban and SAFe help teams work faster and more efficiently through short iterations and continuous improvement.
Product development flow
Product development flow is characterized by the work flowing smoothly through the value stream, with as few handovers, delays and correction work as possible.
Digitization
Digitization plays a critical role in accelerating the development of complex systems by providing a range of benefits that improve efficiency, accuracy and collaboration.
Product Line Engineering
TopTeam is a Model-Based Systems Engineering application with the following functionalities: Capturing and managing requirements from business, users and objects Model-Based Systems Engineering (SysML, UML, RML, BPMN) Capturing design choices and relating them to requirements Modeling functional and physical product decompositions and tracking requirements to them Reusing (the specifications of) standard components Capturing and managing libraries for reuse and working under architecture Verifying and validating specifications Capturing, managing, tracking and mitigating risks Collaborating integrally based on one version of the truth
Enterprise Agile Planning and Management
Targetprocess is an Enterprise Agile Planning application that supports both traditional projects and agile projects from portfolio to team level.
Key functionalities include: Agile and Lean methods such as Kanban, Scrum and SAFe. Strategic Portfolio Management for the purpose of strategy and its translation into execution, including measuring results based on OKRs. Continuous learning and improvement as an integral part of the product development process.
Acceleration of innovation by supporting Rapid Learning Cycles. Dashboards for visual display of management information.
- Accelerate innovation
-
Innovation
Innovation is often a “fuzzy” process in its early stages.
This is because it is not yet about developing a product but building the knowledge needed to make crucial design choices and confident decisions so that you can develop the product accordingly.Rapid Learning Cycles
Rapid Learning Cycles is a framework that allows you to build knowledge quickly and iteratively to make better choices and/or decisions.
We also call these choices/decisions Key Decisions.
Especially when a key decision has a crucial impact on the product and the knowledge to make the decision with confidence is missing, it is important to build this knowledge first before starting development.
This avoids high failure costs, delays in time-to-market and frustration among development teams and management.Customer case
Read how one of our clients applied Rapid Learning Cycles to the development of a new, innovative product.
- Standardize
-
Standardization
Modular design is a method that uses standard designs (called modules or building blocks) that together form a system solution.
This greatly simplifies and speeds up the process of designing, planning and implementing projects.Modular design
(Model-based)
Systems Engineering helps in modular design of system architecture and standard components.
It makes complexity more manageable through visual models.
It also creates a single source of truth which improves consistency and is a prerequisite for reuse.Libraries
Libraries of standard modular components and specifications significantly accelerate the development of complex products in terms of communication, consistency, documentation, traceability, integration and verification.
Reuse
Based on standardized, modular components made available to projects from a library, costs and development time are reduced and products can be brought to market faster.
- Improve continuously
-
Continuous learning & improvement
Continuous learning and improvement is a process and not a “lessons learned” document that disappears into a drawer.
Make continuous learning and improvement an integral part of the product development process.
Organize continuous learning and improvement as an iterative process so that the product and the product development process improves step by step.
Read more about continuous learning and improvement here.Customer case
Read how one of our customers implemented Continuous Learning & Improvement as an integral part of the product development process.
- Connect strategy and execution
-
Strategic portfolio management
Strategic Portfolio Management links strategy and execution.
You define strategic themes and link them to objectives.
You then initiate change and improvement initiatives in line with the strategic themes.
You divide these initiatives into work packages and allocate them to the teams that execute them.
You execute the work iteratively so you keep your finger on the pulse and deliver when there is sufficient value.
The new functionality is used and you measure its contribution to the defined objective.
Read more about Strategic Portfolio Management here. - Develop iteratively
-
Iterative development
Agile and Lean methodologies are designed to increase the speed and flexibility of product development by breaking down the work into small work packages that can be delivered in a short-cycle manner by development teams.
Agile and Lean product development methods are not only suitable for software development.
Agile and Lean methods evolved from the development of physical products and are perfectly applicable there as well.Scrum, Kanban, SAFe
Agile frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban and SAFe help teams work faster and more efficiently through short iterations and continuous improvement.
Product development flow
Product development flow is characterized by the work flowing smoothly through the value stream, with as few handovers, delays and correction work as possible.
- Digitize
-
Digitization
Digitization plays a critical role in accelerating the development of complex systems by providing a range of benefits that improve efficiency, accuracy and collaboration.
Product Line Engineering
TopTeam is a Model-Based Systems Engineering application with the following functionalities: Capturing and managing requirements from business, users and objects Model-Based Systems Engineering (SysML, UML, RML, BPMN) Capturing design choices and relating them to requirements Modeling functional and physical product decompositions and tracking requirements to them Reusing (the specifications of) standard components Capturing and managing libraries for reuse and working under architecture Verifying and validating specifications Capturing, managing, tracking and mitigating risks Collaborating integrally based on one version of the truth
Enterprise Agile Planning and Management
Targetprocess is an Enterprise Agile Planning application that supports both traditional projects and agile projects from portfolio to team level.
Key functionalities include: Agile and Lean methods such as Kanban, Scrum and SAFe. Strategic Portfolio Management for the purpose of strategy and its translation into execution, including measuring results based on OKRs. Continuous learning and improvement as an integral part of the product development process.
Acceleration of innovation by supporting Rapid Learning Cycles. Dashboards for visual display of management information.
Want to know more?
If you are interested in learning where your product development process can be improved, please contact us.
Send us a message or schedule an appointment for an (online) conversation right away.
We’d love to help. We are Synergio.
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