Armstrong World Industries

The Challenge

Faced with mounting competition and tighter budgets, flooring giant Armstrong Worldwide Industries sought a consistent way to better leverage its R&D investment. Like many companies, it found it poured too much money into projects that never made it to market, while sometimes passing on ideas that later would prove to have been worth investing in. They sought a solution that would enable them to have more confidence in their R&D decisions.

How CIMS Made a Difference

Executives turned to a CIMS researcher from Villanova University who had developed a novel approach to R&D portfolio planning and evaluation. A year and a half later, Armstrong had a database-driven process that allowed managers to determine the market-worthiness of every project or idea coming out of its labs, saving them time and money.

The Results

Not long after CIMS finished working with Armstrong, the company was forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to the impact of class-action asbestos-related lawsuits. When Armstrong emerged from bankruptcy, the CIMS-designed R&D planning and evaluation system—which had been maintained despite the company’s troubles--proved to be a valuable asset to new managers brought in to handle the transition. The system provided detailed technical and cost information for every prototype and finished product launched since Armstrong first started working with CIMS. As a result, Armstrong was able to get new products to market much faster than most companies that have been restructured.