This project taught me how important it is for the teams to work together, not to act on their own. The negotiating process remain solely with the sales department and no one else was allowed to contact the client. This is, of course, a recipe for failure - which was also the case here.

Mistakes happen, but a very precise understanding of customer needs and expectations is crucial. Deprived of technical knowledge, traders sold the product at a price, not including very expensive drivers. The whole mishap came out only after the production of the benchmark product. Until then, the entire company was ready, the production was prepared for a large, serial order - and high contractual penalties were included in the contract. Last thing – the agreed delivery dates, even assuming that there will be no mistakes, were very short.

The purchase of the necessary elements would cost almost half of the order value. In addition, the deadline for their delivery was twice as long as we had. It was the moment when you had to roll up your sleeves and go to work. The trader responsible for the bug had gone underground, so no help was available from this side and I decided to do all I can to help.

First, I started the production of what could be produced, without the need to install additional elements. Secondly, I arranged meetings with leading manufacturers of controllers in Poland. It did not help much and it seemed that the project was doomed. At this point, I decided that I would try to find a less classic solution. I contacted a friend in Asia who connected me to a factory in China within hours. After a few sleepless nights of videocalls, we managed to make a deal - the necessary drivers, designed exactly according to our needs, were to be delivered to us within 3 weeks. Additionally, their price constituted only 15% of the price offered in Poland (which was the result of lesser complexity of custom [compared with universal] solutions).

The project looked saved. I worked every day from 7am to 4pm, being available on the phone 24/7 as the production was running 24/7. I often stayed in the office until 9pm helping teams with testing and supervising the assembly line. Something that seemed impossible was finished ahead of time. My additional optimization of production also allowed to reduce material costs, which ultimately resulted in the project being more profitable than originally assumed.

Project manager (production&design), because I was responsible for almost everything - from representing individual teams to solving pressing problems (both technical and financial).