Managing outsourcing in a joint development environment: impact oninnovation and new product development process

摘要

A popular and growing current trend in high-tech productdevelopment is to outsource the development of pieces and parts of aproduct and then to integrate them into the final product. This can bedone on a build to order basis in a manufacturing plant (for example,computer equipment) or through combining various software componentsinto a final release. This trend offers many advantages, yet brings upmany new problems that have yet to be acknowledged or effectivelyaddressed from an engineering management perspective. In this researchwork, issues of concern in the outsourcing process are identified andthe problems and complexities involved in joint product developments andits management are discussed. We address first, the joint developmentprocess, then present and discuss the identified problems of jointdevelopments and extrapolate them to the dilemmas and issues faced byengineering managers. We provide alternative measures through anindustry scenario and investigate the issues of promoting and protectinginnovation within this unique environment