Management of Technology (OM476)

1
Management of Technology (OM476)

• Concurrent Engineering and Teams
• March 29, 2006
• S. Fisher

2
Agenda

• Discuss five case studies of concurrent
  engineering
• What is the role of teams in concurrent
  engineering?
• Some recent updates on CE practices

3
In-class writing

• Of the five case studies described in the
  article, which do you think was most successful?
  Why?

4
Degree of overlap in product design process
Source Umemoto, Endo and Machado (2004). From
sashimi to zen-in The evolution of concurrent
engineering at Fuji Xerox. Journal of Knowledge
Management, 8(4), 89-99.
5
Risks inherent in CE

• Overlapping activities can result in rework due
  to changes in earlier activities
• Rework can be costly
• Up to 50 of the engineering capacity
• Up to 1/3rd of the development budget
• Is CE really worth it?

Source Terwiesch, Loch and DeMeyer (2002).
Exchanging preliminary information in concurrent
engineering Alternative coordination strategies.
Organization Science, 13(4), 402-419.
6
Importance of Teams in CE

• CE relies on strong communication, leadership,
  and team process
• Define team member responsibilities early
• Close proximity can help with communication
  frequency and quality
• Other team characteristics important for
  effective CE?

7
Information Sharing Parameters

• Two situations to avoid
• Rework committing resources based on info that
  turns out to be incorrect
• Starvation inability to continue work because
  of too little info
• Can sometimes avoid starvation through
  duplication
• If there are two options, develop both of them
• Tradeoffs between cost of duplicative work and
  idle time

Source Terwiesch, Loch and DeMeyer (2002).
Exchanging preliminary information in concurrent
engineering Alternative coordination strategies.
Organization Science, 13(4), 402-419.
8
Other CE information sharing guidelines

• Need to consider both degree of precision and
  stability
• Usually tradeoffs between the two
• If need for precision is high and stability is
  low, CE may be inappropriate for that application
• It is safer to share preliminary information when
  tolerances are larger
• Modular design increases flexibility, reduces
  dependence on information

Source Terwiesch, Loch and DeMeyer (2002).
Exchanging preliminary information in concurrent
engineering Alternative coordination strategies.
Organization Science, 13(4), 402-419.
9
CE and Knowledge Management

• Increased efficiency is not the only goal of CE
  also trying to increase creativity and knowledge
  creation
• Fuji Xerox case study
• Developing copier with advanced capabilities in
  mid-90s
• Developed zen-in process to enhance knowledge
  sharing
• Combination of face-to-face and virtual
  discussions

Source Umemoto, Endo and Machado (2004). From
sashimi to zen-in The evolution of concurrent
engineering at Fuji Xerox. Journal of Knowledge
Management, 8(4), 89-99.
10
For next class

• Medtronics case discussion
• Team 7 presenting
• Team 3 review/questions
• All others exec summary
• For Wed., April 5
• Collaborative strategies
• Read Chapter 8