A model for managing the transition to a global engineering network spanning industrialized and emerging economies

Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management - 2006
HarshavardhanKarandikar1, SrinivasNidamarthi2
1ABB Corporate Research, ABB AG, Ladenburg, Germany
2ABB Automation, Freidberg, Germany

Tóm tắt

PurposeProduct development in most industries is often done today in a global engineering network (GEN). More recently, there has been a clear shift to using development resources from the so‐called “emerging countries” (ECs) that have growing domestic market, highly skilled workforce, and low labor cost base. The integration of resources from ECs, whether from the company's own businesses there or from external suppliers, poses a new challenge for collaborative work in a GEN. This paper aims to describe these challenges. Further, the process of transition to the use of resources from ECs is fraught with business risks. Further, seeks to discuss these risks and how they can be mitigated and to propose a model, derived from practice, to manage the transition process. The model comprises a set of foundation elements and location‐dependent transformation processes.Design/methodology/approachProduct development teams in three businesses were studied – an automotive supplier, a manufacturer of made‐to‐order electrical equipment and a developer of automation software – over three years. These businesses were in the process of relocating some development activities to ECs. Two of the teams were assisted in this transition and the third observed and the model presented is an outcome of this involvement.FindingsSuccessfully starting a global development team strategy requires clarity and transparency of strategy, good communication, proper organization of effort and focus on product and process standardization. Further, a set of change management processes needs to be launched at participating locations for competence build‐up and team building.Practical implicationsThis model can be used by organizations setting up such EC‐IC teams to avoid the possibility of failure of such critical collaborative efforts.Originality/valueThere is considerable literature on distributed product development and virtual teams. The coverage includes management challenges, technology enablers and organizational and multi‐cultural challenges. However, the specific challenge of teams comprising membership from advanced and ECs is not covered. Further, while the literature deals with the operation of such teams it does not cover the sensitive transition or start‐up phase. This paper deals with this issue.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Bevan, J. (1989), “Co‐makership”, Management Decision, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 50‐4.

Bloch, M. and Jans, C. (2005), “Reducing risks in offshoring projects”, The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 3.

Boutellier, R., Gassmann, O., Macho, H. and Roux, M. (1997), “Management of dispersed product development teams: the role of information technologies”, R&D Management, Vol. 28, pp. 18‐27.

Dekkers, R. and van Luttervelt, C.A. (2006), “Industrial networks: capturing changeability?”, International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 1‐24.

Dietz, M.C., Lin, S.S‐T. and Yang, L. (2005), “Protecting intellectual property in China”, The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 3.

Earley, P.C. and Gibson, C.B. (2002), Multinational Work Teams: A New Perspective, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ.

Grabowski, H., Lossack, R‐S., Gebauer, M. and Hornberg, O. (2001), “Distributed knowledge management – new challenges for global engineering and product creation: experiences from Chinese‐European collaborations”, Proceedings of ICeCE 2001, September 16‐18, Xi'an, P.R.China.

Hoare, R. and Seiler, G. (2001), “Building blocks for capital projects”, The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 2.

Jonsson, N., Novosel, D., Lilliesköld, J. and Erikson, M. (2001), “Successfull management of complex, multinational R&D projects”, in Ralph, J. and Sprague, H. (Eds), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences, Maui, Hawaii, US, IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA.

Lee, W.B. and Lau, H.C.W. (1999), “Factory on demand: the shaping of an agile production network”, International Journal of Agile Management Systems, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 83‐7.

McDonough, E., Kahn, K. and Barczak, G. (2001), “An investigation of the use of global, virtual, and collocated new product development teams”, The Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 110‐20.

Mar‐Yohana, M.J. (2001), “Leading engineering teams in a global environment”, paper presented at 31st ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, October 10‐13, Reno, Nevada.

Nidamarthi, S. and Karandikar, H. (2005), “Architecting and implementing profitable product families and shared engineering platforms subject to organizational constraints”, in Simpson, T.W., Siddique, Z. and Jiao, J. (Eds), Product Platform and Product Family Design: Methods and Applications, Springer, New York, NY.

Nowak, T., Banas, M., Florkowski, M., Fulczyk, M. and Karandikar, H. (2002), “Synchronous collaborative design system – functionality and architecture”, Proceedings of the 9th ISPE International Conference on Concurrent Engineering: Research and Applications, July 27‐31, Cranfield University, Cranfield.

Parker, H. (1999), “Analysis of collaboration in the new product development process”, Proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference of the Production and Operations Management Society, POM‐99, March 20‐23, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

Petersen, K.J., Handfield, R.B. and Ragatz, G.L. (2003), “A model for supplier integration into new product development”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 20, pp. 284‐99.

Powell, A., Piccoli, G. and Ives, B. (2004), “Virtual teams: a review of current literature and directions for future research”, ACM SIGMIS Database, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 6‐36.

Ragatz, G.L., Handfield, R.B. and Scannel, T.V. (1997), “Success factors for integrating suppliers into new product development”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 14, pp. 190‐202.

Reddy, Y.V.R., Srinivas, K., Jagannathan, V. and Karinthi, R. (1993), “Computer support for concurrent engineering”, IEEE Computer, Vol. 27, pp. 12‐6.

Snow, C.C., Miles, R.E. and Coleman, H.J. Jr (1992), “Managing 21st century network organizations”, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 5‐20.

Stock, G.N., Greis, N.P. and Kasarda, J.D. (1999), “Logistics, strategy and structure: a conceptual framework”, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 22‐3.

Vestring, T., Rouse, T., Reinert, U. and Varma, S. (2005), “Making the move to low‐cost countries”, Supply Chain Strategy, Vol. 1 No. 2.

Vinaja, R. (2003), “Major challenges in multi‐cultural virtual teams”, Proceedings of the Conference of the American Institute for Decision Sciences (Southwest Region), March 6‐8, Houston, Texas, USA, pp. 341‐6, available at: www.sbaer.uca.edu/research/swdsi/2003/Papers/068.pdf.

Benson‐Armer, R. and Hsieh, T‐Y. (1997), “Teamwork across time and space”, The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 4.

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management

Thông tin tác giả