POMS Abstract Acceptance - 015-0477 Coordination and Cooperation during Production Ramp-up: An Empirical Study of the European Manufacturing Industry

Production ramp-up appears to be the main challenge during the late phases of innovation processes: new product specifications have to walk along with new production processes and even new production facilities. Bringing new products to market at a required level of quality while meeting targeted time and cost, is the main goal of production ramp-up management. Literature stresses the importance of coordination and cooperation mechanisms during production ramp-up. Unfortunately up to date no empirical study has been conducted to confirm this issue. Our paper aims to fill this gap based on a survey among 71 manufactures in Germany and other European countries. We analyze a multitude of possible impact factors on production ramp-up success and show that coordination and cooperation have a significant influence. Surprisingly this influence does not turn out as expected.