Bundling Up
MILR Students Leverage Business Analysis Frameworks for the win
Seven MILR students (third row; left to right: Julia Baldassarra, Xuewen Yang; second row, left to right: Lucy Cho, Kaori Hayashi Simon; Qin Wang; first row, left to right: Suyong Hwang, Anielka Figueroa Orozco) won the annual ILR School Bundle project competition in December 2024. The program, in its 17th year, is designed to mimic current HR issues with which practitioners are grappling.
This year’s case had to do with delivering HR solutions for CAHRS partner company Eaton, an intelligent power management company. The case challenge was to help its automotive segment navigate the ICE (internal combustion engine) to BEV (battery electric vehicle) transition.
In order to generate solutions, the winning team leveraged both internal and external business analysis frameworks to identify three key diagnoses that are impacting Eaton: (1) the increase in competition within the electric vehicle (EV) industry, (2) the talent war for the unique skill set required for BEV production, and (3) the cultural differences between BEV and ICE manufacturing environments. Based on these diagnoses, the team developed three recommendations that each targeted a different area of HR and would work as a holistic HR system to support Eaton through the ICE to BEV transition.
The first solution addressed Talent Acquisition, and consisted of two key programs: (1) a two-year apprenticeship program to address Eaton’s software skills gap, and (2) an EV maintenance certification program in collaboration with educational institutions.
The second solution addressed Training and Development, also consisting of two programs: (1) a two-year training program to reskill Eaton’s ICE mechanical engineers into systems engineers who can support BEV engineering teams, and (2) a one-year training program to upskill ICE maintenance technicians to work BEV manufacturing lines.
The third solution addressed Employee Engagement and consisted of a change management strategy for Eaton’s ICE to BEV transition based off of Kotter’s 8-Step Model, as well as insights from CAHRS partner company Ford’s “One Ford” cultural transformation in 2006.
Team Member Reflections:
Lucy - “This year’s bundle case being about the transition from ICE to BEV manufacturing gave it an added element of difficulty and complexity because it was not an area in which any member of our team had personal expertise. So, our team had to lean heavily on the information we gathered during the two Q&A sessions with Eaton, as well as doing a lot of external research and benchmarking. I think the level of detail we went into for each of the solutions—mapping out the timeline, budget, cohort size, candidate selection, role transition process, and more for each of the programs we recommended—and backing all that up with our research and benchmarks, was what helped our solutions sound feasible and attractive to Eaton.”
Suyong - “The process of developing a business solution for Eaton was a series of challenging yet exciting moments. I believe our dedication to thorough research and thoughtful consideration, aimed at presenting a well-rounded solution, contributed to the positive evaluation of our project. I would like to credit my committed teammates for their hard work and dedication throughout this journey.”
The team would like to thank Eaton CAHRS partner members Heather Porzuczek and Julie Habbouche for their roles in developing the case and managing the process; as well as ILR School professors John Haggerty, John, Hausknecht, Rebecca Kehoe and Brian Lucas.