Technology Management:
New Product and Process Development

Course Texts:

• The Perpetual Enterprise Machine, edited by Bowen, Clark, Holloway, and Wheelright. Oxford University Press, 1994. The text is denoted as PEM in the class assignments below.
• Leading Product Development, by Wheelwright and Clark, The Free Press, 1995.
• The Mythical Man-Month, 20th anniversary edition, by Brooks, 1995.

Course Outline and Assignments

I. Technology Development and Competitive Advantage

Class 1 Friday, September 27
Introduction
Innovation and Technology

Readings:

• PEM Chapter 1
• Power et al, "Flops", Business Week, August 16, 1993
• Clark, "What Strategy Can Do For Technology", HBR Nov-Dec 1989
• Case: Gunfire at Sea

Discussion Questions:

1. What is "continuous aim firing"? In what way did it differ from previous practice?
2. What explains the development of the continuous aim process by Scott in 1898?
3. What is your evaluation of Sims and his approach to introducing change? What would you have done differently?

Class 2 Tuesday, October 1
Overview
Product and Process Development

Readings:

• Abernathy and Clark, "Mapping the Winds of Creative Destructions", Research Policy 1985
• Gomory, "From the `Ladder of Science' to the Product Development Cycle", HBR Nov-Dec 1989 Case: Applied Materials

Discussion Questions:

1. Using the frameworks in the readings, what types of innovations do the 8100, 8300, and 5000 represent? What are the corresponding challenges to managing development for each of the projects?
2. Between the Applied Materials' 8100 and the 8300 etchers, which development project was more successful? What do you think were the main factors accounting for this difference?
3. What do you see as the key strengths and weaknesses of Applied's P5000 development effort?
4. How should Maydan respond to the Novellus threat?

Class 3 Friday, October 4
Core Capabilities and Rigidities

Reading:

• PEM Chapter 2 Case:
• Bendix Automation Group (A)

Discussion Questions:

1. Evaluate Searby's vision and strategy for Bendix's Automation Group.
2. Using the frameworks from Class 2, what type of innovation had Bendix been historically performing? What type of innovations are the "enhanced machine tool" and FMS?
3. Is the FMS well aligned with Bendix's core capabilities?
4. What problems, if any do you think face Bendix in achieving Searby's plans? What recommendations would you make to Searby?

Class 4 Tuesday, October 8
Guiding Vision

Reading:

• PEM Chapter 3 Case:
• PEM Chapter 14, pp. 393 - 402, 413 - 425. (Hewlett-Packard)

Discussion Questions:

1. What is the difference between a product concept and a project vision? Compare the use of product concepts and project visions for the HP-150 and Deskjet printer.
2. How would you explain the relative success of the Deskjet compared to the HP-150? Team member list due.

II. Technology and Markets

Class 5 Friday, October 11
The Performance Envelope
Technology Trajectories

Readings:

• PEM Chapter 4
• Technology lifecycles in the semiconductor industry (distributed in an earlier class).
• Hauser and Clausing, "The House of Quality" HBR May-June 198
  8. Case:
• PEM Chapter 14, review pp. 393 - 402, read 402 - 413. (Hewlett-Packard)

Discussion Questions:

1. Consider the task of managing the performance envelope for semiconductor IC production. Why is this task difficult? How would you manage the execution of this task?
2. What is "next bench design" at Hewlett-Packard? Do you think it is a valid approach for H-P in the mid to late 1980s? If not, what should change?
3. Should Quality Function Deployment (QFD) be used at H-P? When would such a tool be most effective? Choice of audit project due.

Class 6 Tuesday, October 15
Competitive Intelligence
Market and Technology Assessment

Readings:

• Kokubu, "Competitive Intelligence", IEEE Spectrum, August 1993
• Schultz, Collins, and McCulloch, "The Ethics of Business Intelligence", Journal of Business Ethics, 1994 Case:
• PEM Chapter 10 (Chaparral Steel)

Discussion Questions:

1. List specific methods of gathering technical and marketing intelligence. How could such efforts on the part of competitors be thwarted? What are the ethical implications of your suggestions?
2. In the context of the projects described in PEM Chapter 10, evaluate Chaparral's capability for: (a) identifying, assessing, and acquiring new technology; and (b) reducing technical, market, and managerial risk.
3. Was Microtuff 10 steel a successful product?

Technology paper outline due.

Class 7 Friday, October 18
Technology Strategy
The Role of Basic Research

Readings:

• Saffo, "The Alto: Today's Technology Yesterday", Personal Computing, June 198
  9. (This is a 2-page review of the book Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer.)
• Asthana, "Jumping the Technology S-Curve", IEEE Spectrum, June 199
  5. (distributed in previous class)
• Wood and Brown, "Commercializing Nascent Technology: The Case of Laser Diodes at Sony".

Discussion Questions:

1. The Sony Research Center (SRC) is an example of a central, corporate lab. Do you think such a central lab is a good idea? If so, what purpose does it serve that could not be better served by R&D organizations in Sony's product divisions?
2. Putting yourself in the position of Kikuchi in 1978, how would you decide whether to have research programs at the Sony Research Center (SRC) in LPE, MOCVD, and/or MBE?
3. Why was an internal laser diode production capability so important to Sony?
4. What were the most important challenges to Sony in moving laser diodes from basic research to mass production? How did Sony address those challenges? How could similar development efforts be improved in the future?

Class 8 Tuesday, October 22
Partnerships and joint ventures
Supplier relations

Readings:

• Pisano and Teece, "Collaborative Arrangements and Global Technology Policy", Research on Technological Innovation, Management and Policy, 1989
• Case: Plus Development

Discussion Questions:

1. What is different about the way the Japanese partner approaches product and process development and the way Plus approaches development?
2. How far behind do you think the development effort is? What should Plus do about the schedule?
3. In the longer term, what does Plus bring to the development effort and the business? Does the partnership provide a foundation for a viable long-term competitive position?

III. Project Management

Class 9 Friday, October 25
Aggregate Project Planning
The Development Process

Reading:

• Leading Product Development, Chapters 2 and 3,
• Reinertsen, "Managing the Design Factory", Electronic Design, September 1991
• Case: Ceramics Process Systems (B)

Discussion Questions:

1. Why is Sundback's organization missing delivery deadlines?
2. What do you think is an appropriate "Design in Process Inventory" level for Sunback's organization? How would allocate this "inventory" among revolutionary, architectural and derivative projects?
3. Evaluate CPS's procedure for choosing new development projects and then monitoring their progress. How would you improve the procedure?
4. What should Sundback do about the three new product proposals?

Class 10 Tuesday, October 29
Structuring the Development Process

Reading:

• PEM Chapter 12 (Kodak) pp. 349-363.

Guest Speaker:

Lynnea Johnson, Manager of Apple's New Product Process at Apple Computer Technology paper is due at 4:30 pm in Littlefield 358.

Class 11 Friday, November 1
Project Leadership

Readings:

• PEM Chapter 5
• Clark and Fujimoto, "The Power of Product Integrity", HBR, Nov-Dec 1990
• Case: Quantum Corporation - Business and Product Teams

Discussion Questions:

1. What is product integrity?
2. What are the advantages of heavyweight project management? What should the responsibilities of a heavyweight manager be? Are there any types of projects where a heavyweight management structure would not be desirable?
3. What do you think accounts for Quantum's success in the Winchester disk drive industry?
4. How effective have the major teams been? What accounts for their primary differences in effectiveness?
5. Develop an overall of plan of action for addressing the team-related issues at the end of the case. How should they be linked to other aspects of Quantum's management approach? How should they measure and track their progress in implementing that plan?

Class 12 Tuesday, November 5
Auditing Development Projects

Readings:

• Wheelright and Clark, "Learning from Development Projects", (Chapter 11 of Revolutionizing Product and Process Development, 1993), (distributed in syllabus)
• Leading Product Development, Chapter 6.
• Collier, DeMarco, and Fearey, "A Defined Process for Project Postmortem Review" IEEE Software, July 1996. (distributed in prev. class)

Discussion Questions:

1. In performing a project audit, what are the most important features of the design project that you think an audit team should try to identify and understand?
2. How are you structuring your audit process? What issues have you identified to focus on in your audit? I will also ask you to do a mid-course evaluation in this class. Audit project preliminary outline due.

IV. Tools and Methods

Class 13 Friday, November 8
Design for Manufacturability
Design Robustness

Readings:

• Taguchi and Clausing, "Robust Quality", HBR, Jan-Feb, 1990
• Box and Bisgaard, "The Scientific Context of Quality Improvement", Quality Progress, June 1987. Case:
• Design for Manufacturability at Midwest Industries (you may skip descriptions of Coventry and Chicago facilities) Exercise:
• Design of Experiments Exercise (distributed in class, due Nov. 15)

Discussion Questions:

1. What is poka yoke? Should design of poka yoke methods ever be the responsibility of product design?
2. What is a fractional factorial set of experiments? When is it appropriate to conduct such a set of experiments?
3. What is a response surface model? When is it an appropriate design tool?
4. What does DFM mean at Midwest Industries? Evaluate Thurlow's approach to implementing DFM at the Raleigh facility.
5. Suppose you were given the job at Thurlow's replacement and charged with moving DFM off its plateau at Midwest. What would you do? Develop a plan of action.

Design of Experiments Assignment

Class 14 Tuesday, November 12
Prototyping

Readings:

• PEM Chapter 7 Case: o Leading Product Development Chapter 5
• PEM pages 363-367 (FunSaver Camera project)

Discussion Questions:

1. Was Kodak's FunSaver camera a success? In the future, how could Kodak prevent projects from languishing in a division, as the Fun Saver project had in the film division?
2. The most common rationale for computer aided design (CAD) is automating engineering activity, thereby decreasing the number of engineering hours required to complete a design. Do you agree with this rationale? Was CAD a worthwhile tool on the FunSaver Camera project. Why?
3. If you were managing the Panoramic single-use camera development project, how would you use prototyping at the different stages of development (e.g., conceptualization, design, test)?

Class 15 Friday, November 15
Integration

Readings:

• PEM Chapter 8 Case:
• PEM Chapter 11 (Digital Equipment Corporation)

Discussion Questions:

1. For each of the four projects in PEM Chapter 11, consider the role of integration across development functions: Was the level of integration sufficient? If not, how could integration be improved?

Design of Experiments Exercise due.

V. Product Architecture

Class 16 Tuesday, November 19
Modular Design
Design Rules

Readings:

• Ulrich, "The Role of Product Architecture in the Manufacturing Firm", Research Policy 1995.
• Marshall, Waller, and Wolff, "1981 Award for Achievement: Lynn Conway and Carver Mead", Electronics, October 1981. Case:
• Computer System Design and Development at MASPAR.

Discussion Questions:

1. What was Mead and Conway's primary contribution to integrated circuit design? Why was is important?
2. What unique features of MASPAR allowed it to achieve such a short design time?
3. What do you think are the most important weaknesses in MASPAR's development organization?
4. What are the key decisions faced by MASPAR at the end of the case? What actions should MASPAR take?

Class 17 Friday, November 22
Architecture and Core Capabilities

Readings:

• Pimmler and Eppinger, "Integration Analysis and Product Decompositions" ASME 1994.
• Henderson and Clark, "Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms", ASQ, 1990.
• Review your notes from Class # 3. The discussion of MASPAR's technology will also be relevant to today's class.
• Case: NEC

Discussion Questions:

1. What are the critical elements of NEC's approach to the development of products based on advanced technologies. Why had they been so successful in the supercomputer market as of the time of this case (1993)?
2. As Watari which of the following technology options would you devote R&D resources to: (1) extension of the SX-3 module, (2) glass ceramic module, and/or (3) feasibility study of a parallel computer module?
3. What are the implications of the emerging parallel computer architectures for NEC's supercomputer development organization? How should Watari respond?

Class 18 Tuesday, November 26
System Design
Application Software Design

Reading:

• The Mythical Man-Month, Chapters 1 - 4.
• Case: Microsoft Corporation: Office Business Unit

Discussion Questions:

1. What is your assessment of the WinWord project? Why did it take so long?
2. How should Microsoft's development process evolve in the future? What specific suggestions would you have for the company?
3. What should Raikes do with respect to the next generation WinWord project?

Class 19 Tuesday, December 3
Contemporary Software Design
Multimedia Software Design

Reading:

• The Mythical Man-Month, Chapter 19.
• Case: Microsoft: Multimedia Publications (A)

Discussion Questions:

1. Compare the waterfall and incremental-build models for product development in The Mythical Man-Month? How would you determine which model to use for software projects? For hardware projects?
2. How should Microsoft alter its software development process and organization (if at all) for consumer multimedia products?

Class 20 Friday, December 6
Audit Project Review
Final Course Review and Summary

Be prepared to discuss the following questions on the Audit Projects. Before coming to class, you should understand which information that you gathered, if any, is proprietary, and should thus not be revealed to the general class.

1. What did you learn about developing and managing technology that was different or went beyond what you had expected based on class discussions?
2. Based on the project your group studied, what concepts appear to have the greatest leverage? Why? How do those concepts need to be adapted and modified in practice?
3. If you were doing this project again, would you do it differently?
4. How?