Process & Project Management

Building something as complex and expensive as an electric vehicle requires planning and good work flow management to stay on track. Its a hobby, yes, but it won't be any fun if it never gets done or costs far more that I anticipated, or both, and in any case I will surely hear about it from the family, which won't be too much fun, either...

I will need to be very practical in getting tasks handled on time and within budget. I also need to be thorough to get both the details and the major issues addressed without undue delays. For now, while I have the luxury of putting some things off, and I can still experiment and learn to a fair degree, but progress must be made consistently to stay on track. I'm less concerned with the time I'm spending now than with the money, so I'm basically finding the more common components cheaply and solving problems I can handle myself. As the Moonray becomes more complete, that will have to change, but for now I am accumulating parts, studying other people's designs, and evaluating materials. That's fun and relatively cheap, but at this point I need to start building something.

I've decided to build at least one 1:3 scale model first, so that I can validate the design and refine it at minimal cost before I start spending full-scale time and money on the Moonray. I'm not a CAD guy, and I don't think it is practical to become one (another steep learning curve?) within the next few months, so I'll be making the Moonray the way I have made models, furniture and structures all my life- on paper, and then with rulers and calipers. I'm a pretty fair modeler, with 40 years of experience in everything from assembling plastic and paper kits to scratchbuilding flying planes, rockets, model railroads and architectural models. Its fun work for me, and it will be satisfying to have something come together quickly that I can see and test. I will also likely save some expensive and frustrating trial-and-error work on the full-size Moonray by developing the model until at least the obvious problems are fixed. I could also really use a well-finished model to raise money, sponsorship and support for the project as the design nears completion and the really expensive bits need buying.

Part of the value of writing this blog is that it focuses my thinking, and creates the archive of managing the project through its various phases. While its far more time-consuming to document and post the process online than it would be to just do it, there's good karma in blogging it and I hope it is fun and informative to see. It also puts my work out for review and suggestions, which can only improve the final product. This has already been going on at the Endless Sphere EV website where I participate in an online discussion group for electric trike builders. Ultimately, maintaining the blog also helps me stay on task with the project. Its not a job and I don't want to make it a chore, but its a pretty big project and anything I can use to help manage and move it along is a good thing.

Finally, there are three pieces of advice I've heard about car projects that make great sense, and I'm determined to stick with all of them on the Moonray project:

1. Do some work on the car every day, even if its just 5 minutes. It will probably never be 5 minutes, but its a great practice to get into, and doing it ensures that project won't stop, which is the most common way projects never get finished. 10 minutes a day is over 60 hours a year, and even a minute a day will keep the Moonray alive.

2. Write down every penny spent on the project, from paper towels to transportation. Without doing that, budgeting and costing is pretty much meaningless, and having detailed expense records will be a great benefit in many situations, from proving up an insurance valuation to selling the vehicle. 

3. Try to map out the time line from now until completion, and keep it current and realistic. Well, that's good advice for any project, but too many hobbyists, (and businesses for that matter,) don't follow it enough.

My current road map looks like:

12/2009-1/2010:
Complete the 1:3 scale Mannikin and suspension component models.
1/2010-2/2010:
Complete the model chassis structures and finish the model.
3/2010-4/2010:
Revise and finalize full size design; create workspace and production schedule
5/2010-8/2010:
Build subframes, suspension, steering and hard points
8/2010-11/2010:
Layup the Monocoque body, and complete the chassis
11/2010-2/2011:
Build and test the drive, brake and electric systems.
2/2011-4/2011:
Finish systems and final assembly- lighting, paint, etc.
4/2011-6/2011:
Begin testing and operation.

As always seems to be the case with long projects, the closer-in tasks seem rushed and the later ones seem to be easier than the amount of time allotted. I also note that EVERY commercial EV project misses its deadlines and winds up with a delayed product, but those folks are working on many other things I don't need to worry about. At any rate, we shall see...