Search results

The purpose of measuring performance on any business process is so that you can do it better the next time around; this is as true of product creation as it is of manufacturing, purchasing, or distribution. In practice, however, companies usually treat each product creation project as a brand‐new, one‐time effort, plunging in and figuring out how to do it from scratch, without any reference to how it was done the last time. This ad hoc approach costs a lot of time and money and constitutes a lost opportunity. Unless companies change their approach toward product creation from an ad hoc process into a systematic and replicable one, there is no hope for improvement.

An analysis of how speed creates financial incentives and competititve advantage. For example, an Arthur D. Little study found that one automobile firm could potentially reduce its product development costs by $350 million just by cutting development time 20 percent.

Rapid technological development is not only profitable but represents a kind of know‐how that yields great competitive advantage. Modelling is used to show the extraordinary profit advantage in reducing product development lead time. Examples are then given of ways in which rapid technological development can be a competitive weapon. There are three key variables influencing success in using it: rate of change of product designs, number of models in existence, complexity of the product. A strategy for innovation is outlined; recommendations are made for idea generation and problem solving, and for achieving quality in product planning. Finally the article analyses the elements in speedy project execution, including allocation of the time of critical personnel.

Develops an original 12‐step management of technology protocol and applies it to 51 applications which range from Du Pont’s failure in Nylon to the Single Online Trade Exchange for Auto Parts procurement by GM, Ford, Daimler‐Chrysler and Renault‐Nissan. Provides many case studies with regards to the adoption of technology and describes seven chief technology officer characteristics. Discusses common errors when companies invest in technology and considers the probabilities of success. Provides 175 questions and answers to reinforce the concepts introduced. States that this substantial journal is aimed primarily at the present and potential chief technology officer to assist their survival and success in national and international markets.

This review aims to provide researchers and managers interested in supply networks with a strategic review of this rapidly expanding field. It does not attempt a comprehensive review of the enormous and fast growing literature but does present the breadth and depth of research and practice in the area. The central aspect of the paper is to suggest that the field can be viewed from four perspectives which all researchers and managers implicitly or explicitly use: upstream, as purchaser; downstream, as supplier; static network, as an auditor of position within its supply network, typically comprising several supply chains, providing a static and comparative view; and dynamic network, as strategist, seeking opportunities to improve the firm's position in an existing network or creating a new network, providing a strategic, dynamic and long‐term view.

When strategic planners at 3M‐Canada get together for a planning session, a staff artist joins them. When executives at Northern Telecom sit down to a strategic session, the note‐takers are busy doodling.

Defining the right product at the right moment is important. But how long it takes to develop and introduce that product can have a dramatic impact on both customer satisfaction and ROI. Here's a metaphorical approach to streamlining the process.

What should a Multi‐National Corporation (MNC) like UMW Toyota Motor Sdn. Bhd. set as its targeted growth in revenue by the Year 2020 to help its host country Malaysia realise its “Vision 2020”? To survive/succeed, Toyota has to anticipate its high technology niche, which is but a “Technological Gleam” today in the eye of Toyota’s “Technical Entrepreneur”. Significant segments of corporate resources will not be committed to the “Technological Gleam” unless the “Technical Entrepreneur” can present an irresistible transformation boost converting the Technology‐Push into Market‐Pull. What will be the market for the hitech product embodying the yet‐to‐emerge hitech? What present product is closest to the potential product? Can its life cycle profile be applied to the potential product? Using the theoretical structure of the Management Of TEchnology Protocol (MOTEP), we analyze Toyota’s transition from the present hybrid fuel (gasoline‐and‐hydrogen combination) to the potential hydrogen fuel in five years.

Do attitudes differ among nations in their approach to product innovation? Arthur D. Little prepared a study which sought to determine how companies in the US, Europe, and Japan address the product innovation process, with specific emphasis on where companies put their efforts, what barriers to product innovation they face, what approaches are used to foster teamwork and integration within their organizations, and what measures are used to evaluate their overall effectiveness.

The decision to outsource a part of an organisation’s activities is often the result of an initiative to realise potential production cost efficiencies. In order to avoid the use of such narrow decision criteria this paper considers the use of a wider array of inputs. Following a review of the literature, a composite outsourcing decision framework is presented. This framework consists of three main components. The first seeks to utilise the unique contextual factors associated with each decision; the second considers the strategic implications of deciding to outsource and the third investigates the traditional cost aspects. The framework is then applied to a case study concerning an engineering organisation which had to decide whether to outsource part of its production facilities. The outcomes suggest that the framework was a useful instrument in assisting management in making this decision, although further work in this area is required.