Cruise -

Internal Ops Origin Readiness

June 2023

Hi! Thanks for checking out this project :)

To comply with NDA, certain parts of the project were edited or removed.

About Cruise

Cruise is a motor vehicle manufacturing company that designs and builds world leading autonomous vehicles. The company has been testing specially built self-driving Chevrolet Bolt EV in various cities in the U.S.

In 2020, Cruise unveiled their development of Origin, a minivan-looking electric bus. As Cruise increased production of their new development in 2023, they aimed to gradually replace the Bolt with Origin.

My project focused on the transition from Bolt to Origin over 4 weeks.

My Impact

  • Uncovered critical roadblocks for achieving company’s business goals

  • Identified areas for improvement to minimize risks and costs, as well as to improve efficiency and reliability

The Problem

  • As business decisions regarding the transitions evolve, we knew very little about how ready internal operations are with the upcoming changes.

  • In order to ensure that transitions are smooth and pain-free for our operations, we need to

    • Understand whether and how new features on Origin affect processes & needs in operations

    • Outline areas for improvement

    • Inform future research

Methods

  • To understand the new features on Origin and potential changes it may bring —> literature review & field studies

  • To determine how Origin’s features would change operations’ work processes and needs —> semi-structured interviews

Research Process

    • Problem Framing

      • Worked collaboratively to understand the problem and why it is important

    • Literature Review

      • Reviewed existing research regarding Bolt and Origin

    • Research Plan

      • Field research guide and interview script

    • Recruitment

      • Determined target participants and availability

    • Logistics

      • Arranged field visits at both Bolt and Origin launching/production facilities, scheduled interviews

    • Field studies with operators across teams

      • Observed and interviewed current operations’ workflows

      • Noted potential differences between Bolt and Origin

    • Semi-structured interviews with subject matter experts (SMEs) across teams

      • Understood the incompatibilities between their current processes with anticipated future processes given existing knowledge

      • Measured the severity of these incompatibilities

    • Findings Synthesis

      • Identified known findings and new knowledge

      • Transformed findings into meaningful and actionable insights

      • Quantified risks for insights

    • Recommendations

      • Generated “how might we” questions to inspire future research

Results

Challenge: Low Familiarity with Origin among operations

  • Risks

    • Increased confusion and uncertainty about upcoming changes

  • How might we…

    • Tailor training processes that are appropriate for the Origin to inform operations and help prepare for upcoming changes

“I don’t really know about the features on the Origin”

“All I know is that there is no steering wheel, but I don’t know how much that will affect our workflows”

Challenge: Operation’s current workflows are not applicable/adaptable to Origin

  • Risks

    • Without updating and accommodating to Origin’s new capabilities, there are increased risks for safety, cost, and efficiency, privacy, and public’s perception of Cruise

    • Old workflows for public-facing operation teams may also reduce customer satisfaction

  • How might we…

    • Develop more efficient, streamlined, and reliable tools while optimizing current processes to reduce cost and unnecessary efforts for Cruise

    • Address needs for automation to reduce operation’s burden with new changes and improve efficiency