Programs that changed industries.
200+ FTTM engagements since 1990. From Sony's first PlayStation to $7B semiconductor fabs. Most of our recent work is under NDA — what we can share speaks for itself.
$5M/day saved. First silicon 2 weeks ahead of target.
GlobalFoundries Fab8 was a greenfield semiconductor manufacturing facility in Malta, NY — built from nothing to produce 28nm process chips at a total program budget exceeding $7 billion.
lateralworks joined as one of the initial five-person planning team, before groundbreaking. We stayed through first silicon, more than two years later. The scope included structuring the initial macro plan, defining the flat project organization around a heavyweight core team, developing detailed micro planning for each module (Etch, Diffusion, Litho, etc.), and designing the macro-micro roll-up system connecting micro plans to the overall program schedule.
Refresh Planning was implemented down to the module level — twice per day at peak intensity. Aggressive acceleration techniques produced an overall schedule pull-in of 15 months, enabling first silicon two weeks ahead of target.
The same team also engaged with GlobalFoundries Fab1 in Dresden, Germany — a separate 28nm SLP process development program that met qualification targets ahead of schedule. And a third engagement on the Fab1 capacity expansion ("Brownfield") program, which doubled fab capacity while maintaining operational production.
The Fab8 project was among the most complex manufacturing programs in semiconductor history. The fact that it finished ahead of schedule — on a $7B budget — is a result that speaks for itself.
The methodology that built the iPod.
In 1996, Philips had a narrow window: develop the first Windows CE personal digital assistant in under 12 months, or lose Microsoft's exclusivity grant. Every month of delay meant more competitors entering the market.
lateralworks joined a handful of key engineers refining system architecture, and worked with a special executive team outside the normal Philips hierarchy. We determined the fastest path was a fully self-contained business unit — engineering, marketing, procurement, legal, manufacturing, and HR — with a core of 20 Philips employees managing 200+ contracted development partners.
We implemented an accelerated procurement and legal process, a multi-company integration framework connecting Philips, Toshiba (CPU), and Microsoft (OS), and a planning and tracking process that ran two to three team updates per week. The product launched at Comdex, winning a prestigious new product award. Full systems development including manufacturing ramp: 13 months.
The Engineering Executive who led the Philips Velo project later applied these exact FTTM practices to create the iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and iPad at Apple — and then founded Nest Labs, acquired by Google. His name is Tony Fadell.
"The Engineering Executive who led the project later went on to apply the best practices he learned at Philips to create the iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and iPad at Apple."
The FTTM methodology developed for the Velo project became the foundation of the product development approach that defined an era of consumer technology.
$15M annual savings. Program of the Year.
Charles Schwab embarked on a three-year IT Infrastructure Rationalization program — migrating 1,100 servers and 145 applications to a common platform to reduce annual IT run-rate by $15M. Any downtime on customer-facing servers would cost millions in lost revenue.
When lateralworks engaged, we found 20+ person meetings with no team structure, no clear ownership, no prioritization. A lot of technical analysis had been completed but lacked a framework to channel it. We initiated with an assessment, then structured the program around an agreed vision, measurable goals, strategies, and tactics.
We developed a decision model that extracted financial data from all 1,100+ servers and ranked them by savings and cost. The analysis found that 70% of savings came from only three business groups — and 75% of those savings from a handful of servers. This focused the execution completely.
The Infrastructure Rationalization program received Schwab's Program of the Year award. The Research Board Inc. cited lateralworks as the key strategic consultant whose "focus was not on a tool or methodology related to rationalization, but rather on an approach to prioritizing the work effort, focused fast time to implementation deliverables and implementing a repeatable process."
The Schwab engagement demonstrated that FTTM methodology applies far beyond hardware development — any complex, multi-workstream program benefits from the same principles of portfolio prioritization, macro planning, and accelerated execution.
From research to production on a startup timeline.
Alta Devices was developing the world's most efficient thin-film solar technology. A 100-person startup with $100M+ in venture capital funding, they needed to simultaneously mature a complex semiconductor process, develop unique tools, and stand up pilot-line production — all by year-end.
lateralworks restructured the project from departmental silos into an integrated lateral process connecting process development, tool development, and manufacturing line installation. We implemented aggressive short-interval planning and weekly schedule updates with the complete management team across a 5,000+ task integrated schedule.
Key interventions included redefining the corporate mission and target market, reorganizing teams around integrated deliverables, coaching the C-suite, and training the internal team to continue independently. The production line start-up target was met.
Alta Devices later held the world record for single-junction solar cell efficiency. The company was eventually acquired by Hanergy.
The list extends considerably further.
Most of our recent work cannot be shared due to IP confidentiality. The nature of bleeding-edge technology development demands discretion.
Your program could be next.
Whether you're managing a late strategic product, starting a new program, or deploying FTTM across a portfolio — let's talk.
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