🛠 Turning Failure into Global Value:

Reengineering the MAR Cockpit Program

How MAR Cockpit Became a Digital Manufacturing Success

🚧 The Challenge

A global initiative called MAR Cockpit (Make, Assess, Release) was launched to unify manufacturing, supply chain, quality control, and assurance data into dashboards for real-time business intelligence.

The business—eager to move fast—bypassed IT and partnered directly with an external vendor, investing millions without IT governance. As Site IT Head, Bradley Lambert observed from the sidelines, unable to intervene fully, but recognizing the architectural flaws.

Eventually, the vendor's design proved incompatible with enterprise systems. Integration with the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) posed such a high risk it could have taken down production operations. The project was stopped. Funding was written off. Morale and trust suffered.

🧠 The Turnaround: Strategic Intervention

Where others saw a dead end, Bradley saw potential.

He proposed reviving MAR Cockpit, this time:

• Sponsored by the business, but led and funded through IT

• Grounded in a robust enterprise architecture that protected MES integrity

• Built with executive support, global stakeholder engagement, and a formal business case

• Backed by global QA, QC, Supply Chain, and IT leaders

✅ The Results

• Successfully implemented a global platform to visualize Make, Assess, and Release operations across sites

• Established standardized, contextualized data across functions and geographies

• Enabled future AI-readiness through structured workflows, integrated data, and governed master data

• Transformed a failed project into a cornerstone of digital manufacturing strategy

🧩 Why This Matters

Bradley Lambert (now Milrea) turned sunk cost and siloed effort into strategic advantage. He delivered:

• Resilience through architecture

• Momentum through executive alignment

• Competitive advantage through data readiness

“Milrea helps companies turn reactive decisions into proactive value creation—this is what it means to lead from failure.”