PRODUCT-PROCESS DEVELOPMENT INTEGRATION IN MANUFACTURING

Organizations vary greatly in their approaches and success in the introduction of new products and services. In this study, it was proposed that much of this variance can be captured by understanding the extent to which product design and process design are integrated in new program launches. A mailed survey of 43 domestic firms was used to test four propositions concerning product-process development practices. Significantly, it was found that firms using the more rare design-manufacturing personnel integrating mechanisms (engineering job rotation and mobility) have higher sales per employee. Results of a discriminant analysis show that firms benchmarking on product development practices, as contrasted with performance benchmarks, were significantly more likely to use both the rare and the more common forms of design-manufacturing integration (i.e., train personnel in new design, methods, have manufacturing sign-off on design reviews, and restructure, e.g., use teams). Significantly, these firms also report a greater proportion of degreed manufacturing engineers. Not surprisingly, larger firms and business units were found to take longer to develop new products.