Concept Engineering: an investigation of TIME vs. MARKET orientation in product concept development.

316 Pages·6 MB·en_US

by  Burchill, Gary W.

Concept Engineering:
An TIME MARKET
investigation of vs.
orientation in product concept development
by
Gary W. Burchill
//
BSE Duke University (1978)
MBA
Harvard University (1987)
Submitted to the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN MANAGEMENT
at the
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
June 1993
© Gary Burchill 1993. All rights reserved
The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to
distribute publicly copies of this thesis document in whole or in part.

Concept Engineering:
An TIME MARKET
investigation of vs.
orientation in product concept development
by
Gary W. Burchill
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN MANAGEMENT
10 May 1993
ABSTRACT
This thesis introduces Concept Engineering, the result of an extensive
collaborative 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 ofTotal 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, credibility and stability. TIME orientation
led to relatively lower design objective clarity and credibility resulting in product
concept changes during downstream development activities thus increasing the
total development time.

Acknowledgments
To my wife Diane and children Lauren, Mark, Mary and Matthew — you
have put up with a lot so that I might have this opportunity; without your
support during these often trying times I would not have made it. To my mother
—
and father I thank you for teaching me the importance of learning from others
and giving me the confidence to trust my own judgment.
To professors Charlie Fine and Shoji Shiba, Dave Walden and Diane Shen
—
I owe an enormous debt ofgratitude for the confidence, encouragement and
support you provided; without it this would not have happened.
To professors John Carrol, Don Clausing, Stephen Graves, John Sterman,
—
Bob Thomas and Karl Ulrich your advice and counsel has tremendously
improved my own understanding and greatly enhanced the quality of this
research.
To Dr. Tom Lee and all of the members and managers of the product
development teams (you know who you are but I promised not to tell) associated
—
with this study from the Center for Quality Management I could not have
done without you.
it
—
To my friends on the faculty, staff and student body of the Sloan School
thanks for listening when I needed to talk.
To the United States Navy, Center for Quality Management, International
Center for Research on the Management of Technology, and Leaders for
—
Manufacturing Program I will be forever grateful for this opportunity.