Structured Engagement

摘要

We discuss the management of the large product development process which necessarily involves a web of firms. Optimisation at the level of the firm means sub-optimisation at the web level or the extended enterprise. Reductions in costs and lead times, for product development in the large, is only possible by recognising that effort is distributed across a market value chain. In this paper we describe a framework for 'structured engagement'. This will support key decision-makers in performing concurrent design of the architectures for the product, the processes, and the chain that delivers the required competencies (skills and technologies.