Baxter runs large, multi-project programmes across Europe. Starting with the VIALFLO technology conversion, Critical Chain synchronized technical and marketing work across teams that used to plan in isolation.
Large European projects like the VIALFLO technology conversion span multiple teams and disciplines — technical and marketing work that each had its own plan, its own due dates, and its own local safety margins. The result was familiar: everyone busy, the overall project still late.
Critical Chain Project Management gave the VIALFLO conversion a single project buffer instead of scattered task-level padding, synchronizing technical and marketing work against the same real deadline. The approach proved itself well enough that Baxter kept using it.
The VIALFLO project was delivered before its planned due date, and Baxter continues to use Critical Chain for most of its European projects — not a one-off fix, but the way large projects now get planned.
Read more about the domain this case sits in: Project Management →