Motto for specialists: Give some, get some: Parallel development of products and their manufacturing processes, within ever shorter lead times, is a formidable challenge for both designers and management

In its planning for the Taurus automobile, the Ford Motor Co. threw out the traditional, so-called over-the-transom process of product design. Instead, the company introduced at its Atlanta, Ga., plant a program team approach, where representatives from planning, design, engineering, and manufacturing all chipped in from the very beginning — five years before what is now the fastest selling car in the United States first rolled out in December 1985.