Narrow Results

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between eco-innovation process and knowledge management (KM) from the perspective of tools and practices, in the initial stages of the product development process. Knowledge management can help to develop behaviours and practices that stimulate green knowledge and improve organisations’ eco-innovation performance. The analysis of the relationship between eco-innovation process and knowledge management in the initial stages of the product development process was performed using three tools: the Standard Design Process Form (SDPS), The STRETCH Methodology and the Product Ideas Tree (PIT) Diagram. The results show that the eco-innovation tools contribute significantly to the creation of knowledge in the early stages of the product development process, as evidenced in the selection of the best ideas and in the reduction of uncertainties on environmental and market opportunities.

In recent years, car makers are relying more heavily on global sourcing of supplies while automotive suppliers are going through a rapid global consolidation process, which requires automotive suppliers develop parts in shorter time at lower cost with higher quality. To meet these challenges, automotive suppliers need a well-established information system strategy together with a BPMS (business process management system) framework tailored to them. In this paper, a workflow-based BPMS framework for automotive part development is proposed together with an information system strategy. Component technologies for developing such a BPMS are available, but the gap is in methodologies for developing it. This paper aims to fill this gap.

Open source (OS) has raised significant attention in industrial practice and in scholarly research as a new and successful mode of product development. This paper is among the first to study open source development processes outside their original context, the software industry. In particular, we investigate the development of tangible products in so-called open design projects. We study how open design projects address the challenges usually put forward in the literature as barriers to the open development of tangible products. The analysis rests on the comparative qualitative investigation of four cases from different industries. We find that, subject to certain contingencies, open design processes can be organized to resemble OSS development processes to a considerable degree. Some practices are established specifically to uphold OS principles in the open design context, while others starkly differ from those found in OSS development. Our discussion focusses on different aspects of modularity as well as the availability of low-cost tools.

Organisation and management of the product development process have been an issue in both academia and industry for over three decades. The literature on product development is growing, but Process Industry is often lacking in these discussions. Therefore, this paper focuses on linking the determinants of an effective product development process to Process Industry and the implication this may have on a traditionally very process-oriented industry by nature. Further, the paper organises the burgeoning product development literature into three main determinants: innovation type, technology strategy and organisational aspect. The selection of determinants to the conceptual framework, adjusting for Process Industry origins in previous written research material and our own empirical work of product development in Process Industry, is briefly presented at the beginning of the paper. Our literature review focuses on the product development process and builds the framework of our conceptual model detailing the elements of intra- and inter-firm processes in the product development process of the Process Industry. Our purpose is to give an increased understanding of the changed innovation pattern in Process Industry and its implication on activities concerning organisation and management of the product development process.

Conducting innovation activities receives increasing attention in SMEs. These activities can be formalized in the product development processes (PDPs), but especially challenges in PDPs affect the SMEs’ innovation capability (IC). Based on a thorough understanding of these challenges, we aim at improving the SMEs’ IC. We address our research question ‘what are the current challenges in PDPs of SMEs?’ with conducting in 13 SMEs semi-structured in-depth interviews with CEOs, innovation managers, and heads of R&D. We identify 30 challenges, aggregated in the themes: iteration, decision making, and stakeholder involvement. While our results extend recent literature regarding current challenges in PDP, they also reveal the SMEs’ needed for effective means to tackle their challenges, and in turn to enhance their IC.

This paper presents a method to manage Engineering Changes (EC) during the product development process, which is seen to be a complex system. The ability to manage engineering changes efficiently reflects the agility of an enterprise. Although there are unnecessary ECs that should be avoided, many of the ECs are actually beneficial.

The proposed method explores the linkages between the product development process features and product specifications dependencies. It suggests ways of identifying and managing specification dependencies to support the Engineering Change Management process. Furthermore, the impacts of an EC on the product specifications as well as on the process organization are studied.