Improving projects´ efficiency in a routine product-process design context

Automotive industry has been for long time a "best practice" in project management. It has also been the pioneer in production optimization philosophies, especially with the contribution of Toyota. This dynamic on project management and resource optimization has been transmitted, sometimes even imposed, to first tier suppliers in a continuous search for low cost high quality products. This situation has completely changed the relationship between carmakers and their suppliers. The relationship concerning product development has evolved from subcontracting to co-development. First tier suppliers on their side have been compelled to rethink their product development systems. They now have to reorganize so that their systems foster innovation in one side, while in the other side development of stabilized technologies are made at the lowest cost and delivery time as possible. Development of the stabilized technologies has been called "routine design". In this paper a tool called Product Development Standard, is presented. First of all it contributes to the stabilization and reliability of the routine product design organization, It enables, in a second time, an easy search for improvement levers so that stabilized technologies can be implemented at low cost and lead-time. In addition this tool fits also especially well for cost control on development. All of these properties make of the tool a "multi-features" tool. It has been implemented in a world leader automotive supplier and is currently in use.