Congruence between product strategy and manufacturing strategy : a framework for collaborative development

Abstract: Today’s industries face an increasing global competition. Decision makers have to deal with different kinds of uncertainty, a complex business ecosystem, a high pace of change, and an unforgiving market when less than best decisions are made. One, among many others, approach that can lead to these better decisions is to have a strategy.The objective of this research is:“To design a model that supports the formulation of product strategy and manufacturing strategy in accordance to each other and thereby facilitate and encourage continuous communication and collaboration between product development and manufacturing system development.”To help meet the objective, three chapters of frame of reference are presented; Strategy, development processes and design for X. The frame of reference together with discussions in industry (ITT Flygt) has in an iterative manner lead to a suggested model that supports the formulation of product strategy and manufacturing strategy.Future research will improve, evaluate and validate both the usability of the model and the results from using it in practise. A method for using the model will be developed.The research project presented in this licentiate thesis is one of seven parallel research projects with a shared objective – to develop systematic working procedures, a generic decision model and decision sub models that support the practical design of a workshop that supports the business strategy of the company.