Product Development Performance: Strategy, Organization, and Management in the World Auto Industry

The result of six years of research conducted at the Harvard Business School on how different manufacturing firms around the world approach the development of new products. Its principal focus is on the impact of strategy, organization, and management on this critical component of business strategy. Concentrates on case studies from the world auto industry. Drawing on extensive research on twenty companies in Europe, North America, and Japan, the authors identify the strategies, practices, and capabilities that create superior performance in lead time, engineering productivity, and total product quality. The authors make the general applications of their findings clear to other industries. Managers will see how engineering needs to become more customer oriented, how integrated problem-solving activities pay off, how lead times can be cut without damaging side effects, and how strong project leaders championing products can promote innovative results.

This is one of the first and best books on concurrent engineering (cross functional development) and it sets a very high standard. It is well written and persuasive. While some diagrams are overly ambitious - one has 59 arrows and 14 explanatory captions - it rarely gets bogged down in jargon or long proofs. Upon re-reading it, it does not at all appear out-dated; indeed, their prescriptions appears to have been learned and integrated into many American industries, from autos to computer networks.


Successfully measured competitiveness in the Auto Industry   July 7, 1999
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

This book is very famous in the auto industry. It describes and compares world auto makers' overall competitiveness with regard to product development. It explains to us why the Japanese auto makers dominated world auto market in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The Japanese introduced their products far faster than competitors,the Europeans and Americans, to the global market, not to speak of their superior product quality. What happened to them? Were there any market condition involved? The answer is no. The Japanese product managers were champions not coordinators or linkage men. They influenced more power over functional product development teams, such as styling, design, testing. The Japanese also showed real TQM(Total Quality Management) not a lip-service. I think this book helped other automakers to scrutinze their process and to prepare for the next challenge. The Americans and European automakers do not lag behind now in the survival races. They get back to their position as world leader as they did in the early 1900s. If you want to know more about the logic and reasoning, this book has more.