Santa Cruz Bikes1. What, in your opinion, was the key factor in Santa Cruz Bicycles’ successful process

redesign?

Santa Cruz Bicycles’ was successful in its process redesign mainly because it adapted a

radical change in its business processes which enabled the company to develop new and

innovative products much more rapidly. Instead of making small incremental changes to

improve its processes, Santa Cruz Bicycles decided to undertake a “complete overhaul of

the design and engineering process”. The company did this through a “combination of

people, processes and technology” based in the article by Duvall (2007) in

Baselinemag.com.

Although the software change was an integral part in the radical improvement of its

processes, the crucial factor in its success was in whether the software had integrated

effectively with the company’s technology needs and the company’s culture. For

example, in selecting the appropriate software, Santa Cruz Bicycles’ considered the

following factors: whether the software met its needs, whether the software could

handle complexity in modelling and whether the software could integrate effectively

with other software (Duvall, 2007). In addition, Santa Cruz is a company that is made

up of passionate mountain bike enthusiasts who are “paid to push the envelope and be

creative and come up with new stuff”, as described in a blog article on Santa Cruz’s

website (Joe’s Corner, 2012). The new software’s ability to run simulations at a faster

rate helped its employees to rapidly generate and test new ideas for innovative

products, thus stimulating their creativity.

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Santa Cruz Bikes2. What outside factors had come together for Santa Cruz Bicycles to be able to make the

changes they did?

First of all, Santa Cruz was able to move prototype production in-house because the technology

to build intricate parts was available in the market. The company invested $ 45,000 in a van-size

machine called Haas Automation Toolroom Mill that could transform aluminum into intricate

parts needed to produce prototypes (Duvall, 2007). Therefore, the ability to control production

in-house gave Santa Cruz autonomy and flexibility, as opposed to being dependent on third-

party suppliers which may have its own timeline and processes that may slow down Santa

Cruz’s prototype development.

Secondly, Santa Cruz was able to secure the high-quality human capital that had the skills to

build and test prototypes in-house because the Santa Cruz area was known to be a hub for

bicycle design and manufacturing and attracted people with a passion for bicycle design and

bicycle riding. Gary Yokota is a master frame builder that was hired by Santa Cruz Bicycles

exclusively for that purpose. Having Yokota build and test prototypes that were designed by the

engineering team, using parts produced by the van-machine created a seamless integrated

workflow that enabled radical improvements in processes.

Finally, the fact that product life management (PLM) technology is more accessible to smaller

firms such as Santa Cruz Bicycles allowed them to effectively deploy this software across the

organization. As vendors today could “break down PLM into module” (instead of selling it as a

package), mid-market firms can obtain this technology at a relatively affordable price.

3. Why is this story more about change management than software implementation?

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Santa Cruz BikesThe success of Santa Cruz Bicycles is not due solely to the change in software. Many other

factors contributed to their success in bringing products “into life” at a faster rate e.g. hiring of

master builder, in-house production as opposed to outsourcing, the present company culture

and the availability of suitable software that catered to smaller firms .

The crucial factors in making decisions to improve a company’s processes is not about selecting

the most advanced software and implementing it across the company, but it is about choosing a

software that would propel the company to greater performance taking into consideration and

the needs of its employees, and its current and future technology needs.

In the case of Santa Cruz Bicycles, the company’s employees were frustrated with the slow

process of “bringing a new design to life” using the CAD software. The new PTC software was

embraced by its employees because it encouraged them to explore new ideas and assess the

design from multiple variables. The new software did not make their function obsolete, but

enhanced the quality of their work.

Secondly, in selecting a software, Santa Cruz Bicycles considered future expansion of software

use (Duvall, 2007). They chose PTC’s software with the expectation to integrate with other PTC

modules over time. This is an important lesson in change management because a company

needs to project its future needs so as to encourage a seamless workflow that can be built upon

as the need arises (incremental improvements) as opposed to a total system overhaul (radical

change).

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