Q1. Why did it take GM over four years to design a new car?

ANS 1: Coordinating 20,000 designers in 14 GM labs internationally,as well as

the multitude of tests and over 1000 suppliers was too huge a task.
Communications for collaboration was slow and severely stretched out the
time-to-market.The design process was further complicated by over 7000
legacy systems. That's why GM over need four years to design a new car.

Q2. Who collaborated with whom to reduce the time-tomarket?

ANS 2: EDS created a software system that allowed the designers and
engineers to collaborate online, which was aided by NetMeeting from
Microsoft.Additional collaboration software was employed for product testing.
eMatrix was employed to coordinate activities along the supply chain, and was
integrated with the EDS software systems.Search for "eMatrix General Motors"
on Google to learn more about the software and how General Motors used it.

Q3. How has IT helped to cut the time-to-market?

ANS 3: IT helped to cut the time-to-market to improved use of IT has reduced
the time to market from 4 years to 18 months. It has also allowed for virtual
car crashes, instead of real crashes, producing faster cycle times and
dramtically reduced development and testing costs.