What Backgrounds Build the Best Program Manager

One of the most difficult people to replace in an Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) company is a Program Manager(PM). Different EMS companies have different PM models, there is no one right answer to what they consider important in program management.

Six execs give their takes
• Henry Protzel, Project Support Manager, WKK America (Holdings) Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA).
• Leo Reynolds, Vice Chairman, Electronics Systems Inc. (Sioux Falls, SD).
• Renee Rocca, Program Director, Hunter Technology (Santa Clara, CA).
• Lynn Cuperus, director operations, Goodrich Corp. (Albuquerque, NM).
• Tan Ka Huat, Managing Director, CEI Contract Manufacturing Ltd. (Singapore).
• Elliot L. Shev, Sr. VP Sales and Marketing, SMS Technologies Inc. (San Diego).

What is your vision of the PM's role in terms of customer support and project management within your company?
Protzel: The PM is usually the sole contact for the customer. A PM's expertise in handling a project often defines the way customers perceive the support they are receiving. Strong support leads to a happy customer. Resulting in more business.
PMs need to know the company inside and out, understand available resources as well as limitations within their company. They should also know the same of the individuals within the departments and know resources and limitations of the company's material suppliers.
The ability to negotiate through the different departments to get the job done in their favor tactfully. They should have a strong technical background, while not an Engineer graduate, ability to see the macro view of a project and a working knowledge of how it all falls into place and be able to act on a moment's notice and change channels just as fast.
Reynolds: PMs perform the single most defining role in an EMS company. The EMS business is all about understanding and managing customer expectations. The PM has to understand the technical, business and relationship issues to manage the expectations and then translate those expectations for the EMS company in a way that produces good outcomes. Ultimately, program management is a relationship-building endeavor.
Rocca: PMs will manage business orders from beginning to end. Without planners at Hunter, the PM must status material as it is purchased and have NPI meetings with engineers and production to go over how we plan to build the product. A key skill is maintaining good customer communication and monitoring daily schedules. When it is production ready, the PM must be sure assembly packages are complete and correct. After production the PM needs to feed to the customer any manufacturability issues for future builds.
Cuperus: A PM needs to be a strong interface and a business development front person. When new product development is involved, a PM must keep the design on track, the one thing that [can] derail programs quickly.
Tan: PM is the business management person with arguably the most important function to implement: customer relationship management. This includes providing seamless customer care, encompassing the customer's demand and forecast management, materials and production activities coordination, quality/reliability and delivery fulfillment support, non-business/social interactions with the customers and anything else required. PM are most likely to be groomed into a general management function as the future leader of an EMS company.
Shev: The PM is the key customer interface and the lead for the product team which, in addition, consists of a quality engineer, mechanical engineer and production control.

Can you describe an example where either a strong technical background or business background helped you or your PM better address customer issues?
Protzel: I was prepared to be sent to a customer on a moment's notice regarding invoices. That meeting was underway 15 minutes when the QC department manager walked in. Next thing you know, I was out on their production line for three hours reviewing process improvement issues. By the time I returned home he had sent an email in recognition of my support in answering his questions, copying my team as well as his.
Reynolds: Recently, a newer customer asked us to take over a major program in the middle of a run from a competitor that turned hostile to both our customer and our people that were sent in to pull inventory and tooling. Our customer related that they appreciated our PM's (and his team's) professionalism in handling a very difficult situation. This exemplifies one of the major skills required by PMs: handling unexpected and difficult situations correctly, or in simpler terms the ability to think on your feet.
Rocca: Knowing the business is the main thing. I have very bright people reporting but couldn't understand the technical side of our business. Capable PM knows what customers are talking about, come up with creative ideas to get difficult programs through the manufacturing process and keep good communication with customers.
Cuperus: On space hardware, the engineering background has frequently prevented us from agreeing to a scope change or technical requirement that would derail delivery of compliant hardware. Lack of business background, on the other hand, has cost us margin or profitability when scope changes become science experiments and the engineering nature would take over (the Jekyll/Hyde phenomenon).
Tan: We have several cases that involved the need to be physically present to help in diagnosis of technical issues that were either process or electrical test related. A PM with strong technical background traveled within 48 hours' notice without bringing a team of engineers or technicians. The PM could confidently relate to the customer technical staff to review and discuss the problems, and come to a decision stage. Where it involved phone calls or remote interactions, this technically strong staff member could discuss in a 24/7 fashion with much less need to adjourn the session for consultation with other staff. Staff members with technical backgrounds can pick up business skills much more readily than staff members with business backgrounds can pick up technical knowledge.
Shev: PMs faces mostly technical issues. They deal with issues that concern documentation, parts, production and test. A good understanding really helps to deal with the everyday issues that come up. From a business side, street smarts are the best skill to have. Preparing a quote is mostly by rote and predefined algorithms; knowing when to deviate is gut level, not something taught in school.

Common Ingredient
Throughout the responses a key theme was that PMs are often the "face" of the EMS provider and as such required people skills which included the ability to think on their feet, communicate clearly, negotiate well and maintain organization within the programs they managed. The degree to which a pure technical or business background is required is often driven by the breadth of support staff available and the PM's primary role in a given project. All respondents valued prior EMS experience over formal education, which reflects the specialized nature of program management within this industry.

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