Concept Engineering: An Investigation Of TIME versus Market Orientation inProduct Concept Development

摘要

This thesis introduces Concept Engineering, the result of an extensivecollaborative research effort with product development professionals from member companies of the Center for Quality Management, as a complete decision support process for enhancing product concept development. Concept Engineering applies the principles and practices of Total Quality Management to develop customer-focused product concepts. The simultaneous introduction of Concept Engineering into product development organizations in three different companies created an opportunity for a comparative study of the product concept decision process. The comparative analysis is conducted using Inductive System Diagrams, a method introduced in this research, for systematic field-based hypothesis generation. Inductive System Diagrams combine aspects of grounded theory methods and system dynamics to develop and communicate substantive theories intimately tied to the data. The cross-company comparative analysis of product development teams, some using and others not using Concept Engineering, led to the generation of a dynamic hypotheses regarding the impact of a relative emphasis on TIME vs. MARKET orientation during the product concept decision process. It is proposed that a relative emphasis on TIME reduces concept development time but increases total product development time compared to a relative emphasis on MARKET orientation during product concept development. The MARKET orientation results in design objectives with higher clarity.