Major lessons learned were -- 

• Concurrent, integrated engineering was essential to meet the product goals and schedule. Interaction between Hitchiner and BMW engineers was critical right from the start. 

• There were many design iterations in the process, and strong communication between the two teams was essential to meet the dynamic quality, schedule and cost targets. 

•  Concurrent engineering must be responsive to unexpected challenges. 

  • In the first prototype qualification test, the original alloy produced excessive wear on another component. This was found 3 months before production and required a crash program to identify an appropriate alloy with higher hardness.