To standardize the toy material definitions, WahShing turned to Oracle's Agile. But engineers were accustomed to listing their toy material specifications on paper. Now they do so electronically, via a selection menu. "It was difficult at first to convince the engineers," said Kubo, "but the team leaders quickly understood the benefit of standardized data and started encouraging their teams to use the system."

But standardization was only part of the project--Kubo said the company also leveraged features in Agile to develop a knowledge database. The database provides information about materials and their components (like the oil), but also keeps track of the product development process.

"For example, a toy gun is supposed to shoot for 10 meters, but our prototype only shoots five meters--we then need to modify the mechanism," he said. "The entire process is now tracked, so other engineering teams follow it can speed up the toy development process."

Kubo said they are aiming to shorten the time required for toy debugging and fine tuning by one month after implementing Agile. He added the company has currently completed phase two of the project, which is to manage workload and scheduling for the different engineering teams.

As they enter the third phase: integrating Agile with the company's ERP system--also supported by Oracle--Kubo expects to achieve cost-efficiency.