Mass customization, aiming at delivering an increasing product variety that best serves customer needs while keeping mass production eciency, has recently received numerous attention and popularity in industry and academia alike. This paper presents a methodology of developing product family architecture (PFA) to rationalize product development for mass customization. Systematic steps are deve...

To realize concurrent engineering, different product development stages must be linked to each other on the basis of an integrated and consistent product information model. Features are used as information units for associating specific sets of geometric entities. In this paper, semantics of design and machining features are discussed. Furthermore, feature association and unification for inform...

This paper documents the integration of Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) principles into an existing phase gate process of a new product development group at an automotive part supplier. Six Sigma was deployed four years ago, with DFSS being introduced in the past year. A description of how the design and development process has changed with the introduction of DFSS is provided. Using field data fro...

An important question for IS researchers and practitioners is how IT can improve new product development (NPD) in the context of inter organizational development. More precisely, this paper aims at understanding how Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) technology contributes to NPD knowledge integration in this environment. It is based on a longitudinal case study of a French industrial Group wit...

The purpose of this paper is to explain product development performance through the link between knowledge management and knowledge integration. When product development teams integrate knowledge about two external entities -customers and suppliers, they acquire a better understanding of the market and of each other’s needs and capabilities, which enables them to operate and innovate better tha...

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The work program of complexity (WPOC), stemming from systems science, was applied by a large cross-functional team of Ford engineers and system developers in the mid-1990s as an enabler to create an enterprise-wide information system known as the C3P system. This brief descriptor refers to a CADjCAEjCAMj PIMS system, applied to design, engineer, and manufacture automobiles; and further to provi...

Trust has been found to be important for integrating suppliers ́ knowledge in new product development (NPD). Different degrees of trust have different consequences for NPD. This paper investigates the effects of trust for capturing supplier knowledge in NPD in different situations. Two different NPD collaborations, identified as polar cases, are studied. The findings indicate differences in know...

This talk discusses how agile methods can be used for managing high-risk, time-sensitive R&D-oriented new product development (NPD) projects with demanding customers and fast-changing market conditions. It establishes the context, provides a definition, and describes the value-system for lean and agile project management. It provides a brief survey of popular lean and agile project management a...

Many firms have moved from outsourcing only manufacturing and staff support activities (e.g., janitorial services) to outsourcing more complex and central activities such as product and process development. Outsourcing these more complex, nuanced, and time-sensitive activities increases the difficulties of coordinating with suppliers. We examine the frequency with which firms use various intero...