The product development process as a measuring tool for company internationalisation? The case studies of DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management

Volumn 4, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 1-21

  Pries, Ludger ^a   Schweer, Oliver ^a  

^a RUHR UNIVERSITY BOCHUM   (Germany)

Author keywords

Competencies; Functions and resources; German automobile manufacturers; Globalisation; Internationalisation; Product development process

Indexed keywords

AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY; DECISION MAKING; INTERNATIONAL TRADE; PRODUCTION CONTROL; SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS; STRATEGIC PLANNING;

COMPETENCIES; FUNCTIONS AND RESOURCES; GERMAN AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURES; GLOBALIZATION; INTERNATIONALIZATION; PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS (PDP);

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT;

EID: 2542638014     PISSN: 14709511     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/IJATM.2004.004393     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. In the following we will mainly use the short term 'PDP' for Product Development Process and 'PDPs' for the plural form.
2. Pries, L. (1998) Betrieblicher Wandel in der Risikogesellschaft. Empirische Befunde und konzeptionelle Überlegungen, 2nd ed., München/Mering: Rainer Hampp Verlag.
3. This also holds true for BMW, which nevertheless is not dealt with in this article. Mercedes-Benz now is one car brand of the DaimlerChrysler consortium; but as we discuss mainly the decade of the 1990s, when Mercedes-Benz was part of the Daimler-Benz consortium, and the DaimlerChrysler merger did not interfere in the product development process of the M-Class, we will use the term Mercedes-Benz here and speak of a German company, although this is quite difficult after the DaimlerChrysler merger.
4. Referring to the current state of debate about carmakers' internationalisation strategies see [5]. His paper will introduce the forthcoming GERPISA volume on the strategies of internationalization in the auto industry.
5. Volpato, G. (2002) 'Carmakers internationalisation strategies: an overview', La Lettre Du GERPISA, No. 158, pp.2-5.
6. This research was realised as a cooperation between the Institute of Sociology (Prof Dr Gert Schmidt) at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Department of Social Sciences at Ruhr- Universität Bochum (Prof Dr Ludger Pries). It was supported by the German Science Foundation (DFG) under the project title 'Internationalization Profiles of the Big Three German Automobile Companies BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen during the 1990s'. The GERPISA network supported in the CoCKEAS-context this research as well. We would like to thank our colleague Christian Sandig (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) for his critical reading and discussion and for a review of the English version of the original paper. Finally we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of IJATM for their valuable and important suggestions.
7. During the first stage of the research project (Oct. 1997 until Sept. 1999; the second phase ended in May 2002), empirical data was collected at various manufacturing plants run by BMW, Daimler-Benz and Volkswagen in Brazil, Mexico, the Unites States and Germany. The data verified the hypothesis that underlay the research: the building of new locations of production and the restructuring of existing manufacturing plants overseas revealed a qualitatively new phase of internationalisation during the 1990s of the Big Three German Car Manufacturers. By reconstructing the profiles of the local overseas plants, their growing weight within the total company structure could be demonstrated, as could the new strategic orientations of these production units within the respective regions. For details see [8].
8. Eckardt, A., Köhler, H.-D. and Pries, L. (2000) 'Auf dem Weg zu global operierenden Konzernen? Fallstudien zu den Internationalisierungsverläufen deutscher Automobilkonzerne in den 90er Jahren. Abschlussbericht zum Forschungsprojekt', Betriebliche Produktions-Konfigurationen und -Leitbilder in der globalisierten Standortkonkurrenz. Eine vergleichende Untersuchung der Pkw-Endmontage deutscher Automobilkonzerne in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, den USA, Mexiko und Brasilien, Erlangen.
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12. Regarding the product design process as a social process, see [13].
13. Karlson, B. (1994) 'Product design, towards a new conceptualization of the design process', unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Industrial Economics and Management, Stockholm.
14. Clark, K.B. and Fujimoto, T. (1992) Automobilentwicklung mit System. Strategie, Organisation und Management in Europa, Japan und USA, Frankfurt/Main: Campus, p.67 [reprinted from (1991) Product Development Performance, Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, pp. 1-6].
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20. An example for this stream is [19].
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22. Porter, M.A. (1986) 'Competition in global industries, a conceptual framework', in ibid. (Ed.) Competition in Global Industries, Boston: Harvard Business School, pp. 15-60.
23. Van Tulder, R. (1999) 'Rival internationalisation trajectories', in Eckardt, Andrea/Köhler, Holm-Detlev/Pries, Ludger (Eds.) Global Players in lokalen Bindungen. Unternehmensglobalisierung in soziologischer Perspektive, Berlin: Sigma, pp.53-79.
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25. Pries, Ludger, Oliver Schweer and Christian Sandig (2002) Produktentwicklungsprozesse und Konzerninternationalisierung: Drei Fallstudien. (Manuskript Bochum).
26. Schreiber, G. (1998) Eine Geschichte ohne Ende. Volkswagen de México, Puebla: Volkswagen de México, p.312.
27. Interview VWD-1, p.9.
28. Interview V8, p.11 and 13.
29. Interview V3, p.2f.
30. Handelsblatt from 21/22.2.1998.
31. Auto-Zeitung 1/99, pp.44-51.
32. To explore this in detail would be an interesting subject for our research study (see section 1.1), but it could not be elaborated on here.
33. Lamm, J. (1997) Mercedes-Benz M-Class. The Complete Story Behind the All-New Sport Utility Vehicle, Osceola, WI: Mercedes-Benz US. International, Inc., p.5.
34. Haasen, A. (1999) 'M-Class - the making of a new Daimler-Benz', Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp.74-78.
35. See also Mercedes-Benz board member for passenger cars Jürgen Hubbert in Lamm [31], p.24.
36. In this context we should not forget the 'Elk-Test' affair involving the A-Class. However, after some technical improvements (e.g. ESP), it became a success story, too (The authors).
37. In this case you must not forget the almost 50-year-old history of manufacturing trucks in Brazil, but in our case we only refer to cars and new models.
38. An additional production capacity of currently 25,000 cars p.a. is located in Graz/Austria at Magna Steyr-Daimler-Puch.
39. Renschler began working at Mercedes in 1988 and a few years later became the assistant to the soon-to-be chairman Helmut Werner.
40. MBUSI Press Information (1997) The Making of the Mercedes-Benz M-Class: New plant, new product, new people, new way of working. Available from http://www.mbusi.com/pr/overview.html
41. Interview M7. The selected passage from the interview was translated in its essential parts.
42. Mercedes-Benz Project, Inc. It changed to Mercedes-Benz US International, Inc. (MBUSI) in 1994/95 when the first buildings could be obtained.
43. Interview MB-USA-3, p.5.
44. As a result, Spartanburg in South Carolina became home of 3-series production for a short time before becoming the exclusive plant for the Z3-roadster and X5-SAV.
45. What is quite interesting, referring to the design of the M-Class, is that we did not find any indications of the quality of the work of the then new Tokyo studio.
46. The US model resurfaced in 1996 as the AAV show car at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit to present a hint to the upcoming M-Class series-model.
47. The numbers are cited from [46]. One of our interview partners put the number of engineers at 90: MB-USA-2 commentary, p.2. Note that in this case it was not possible to record the interview.
48. Leicht, H.-P. (1994) 'Southern Comfort', Auto Motor Sport, 19.
49. Reference [32] specifies the number of members with about, 150.
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51. Interview MB-USA-3.
52. Bill Taylor himself prefers to characterise it as 'one piece flow' than 'lean'.
53. MB-USA-1 commentary, p. 1.
54. Peter Hannemann informed us of an additional or perhaps alternative SUV model for Tuscaloosa. It was called 'big brother' as it was to be significantly 'bigger' than the M-Class and had no model name yet. He wrote that Mercedes-Benz intended to produce the 'big brother' on the second line in Tuscaloosa and would concentrate its all-terrain-vehicle competencies there. The presentation of the model was planned for the Detroit Auto Show 2002. Indeed, Mercedes-Benz presented a design study termed GST (Grand Sports Tourer) in Detroit, which deviated markedly from a pure SUV. Concept and packaging (e.g. 5.5 litre V8 Mercedes-AMG power plant, 4WD-electronic traction support system 4-ETS from the M- and G-Classes) let us presume that it was intended primarily for the US market and, therefore, might be produced in Tuscaloosa.
55. Hannemann, P. (2001) 'Die M-Klasse in XXL. Mit einem überdimensionalen Offroader geht Mercedes neue Wege', DIE WELT, May 5, p.A3.
56. Regarding 'transnational social spaces', see [55].
57. Pries, L. (2001) 'The approach of transnational social spaces: responding to new configurations of the social and the spatial', in Pries, L. (Ed.), New Transnational Social Spaces. International Migration and Transnational Companies, London: Routledge, pp.3-33.
58. With the aforementioned exception of the small production capacity for the M-Class in Graz (the authors).
59. Chandler, A.D. (1962) Strategy and Structure. Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise, Cambridge/London: MIT Press.
60. Child, J. (1997) 'Strategic choice in the analysis of action, structure, organizations and environment: retrospect and prospect', Organization Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp.43-76.
61. See e.g. Scott, W.R. (1986) Grundlagen der Organisationstheorie, Frankfurt/Main, New York: Campus [reprinted from (1981) Organizations. Rational, Natural, and Open Systems, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.].
62. See e.g. Scott, W.R. (1986) Grundlagen der Organisationstheorie, Frankfurt/Main, New York: Campus [reprinted from (1981) Organizations. Rational, Natural, and Open Systems, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.].
63. Marcus, G.E. (1995) 'Ethnography in/of the world system: the emergence of multi-sited ethnography', Annual Revue of Anthropology, Vol. 24, pp.95-117.