Product Design (DE G531)

Product Development Process Tools

Course IC
Dr. Ganesh M. Bapat
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Email: ganeshm@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in
BITS Pilani
K. K. Birla Goa Campus

24-08-2023
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Product Development teams summary
1. Characteristics of an effective team
2. Becoming effective team member
3. Team Roles
• Wilde’s Model
• Belbin Model
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

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Traditional teams
• Over the wall engineering approach:
• Each department throws the job “over the wall” when they think
they have finished their bit…only to have it thrown back for some
rework
• Slow serial process Long product development time+ costs
• Customer needs are lost in the process and the back and forth
between the departments

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Concurrent engineering
• Systematic approach to the integrated concurrent design of products
and their related processes, including manufacture and support
• Emerged from desire to shorten product development time, improve
quality and reduce product life cycle costs.

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Concurrent engineering
• Key elements:
• Cross-functional teams
• Parallel design
• Vendor partnering/ Early supplier involvement (ESI)

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Advantages of Concurrent engineering
• Shorter time to market • Reduced product
development costs

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Product development Organizations
• The scheme by which individual designers and developers are
linked together into groups
• The links between team members are based on:
• Reporting relationships
• Financial arrangements: BU’s, departments etc.
• Physical layout / Virtual layout
• Functional organization: links between those who perform
similar functions
• Project organization: links between those who work on the
same project

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Functional Organization
• Hierarchical organizational
structure where people are
grouped as per their area of
specialization
• People are supervised by a
functional manager expert in the
same area

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Functional Organization
Advantages:
• Employees are grouped by their knowledge and skills, which helps achieve the
highest degree of performance.
• Employees are very skilled. Efficiency is gained because they are experienced in the
same work and they perform very well.
• Roles and responsibilities are fixed, which facilitates easy accountability for the
work.
• Hierarchy is very clear and employees don’t have to report to multiple supervisors.
Each employee reports to functional manager, which reduces the number of
communication channels.
• No duplication of work because each department and each employee has a fixed
job responsibility.
• Employees feel secure and have a clear career growth path, and therefore, they
perform well without fear.
• Sense of job security tends to makes employees loyal to the organization.
• Excellent cooperation and communication within the department.

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Functional Organization
Disadvantages:
• Employees may feel bored due to the monotonous, repetitive type of work and
may lose enthusiasm for the job.
• If the performance appraisal system is not managed properly, conflicts may arise.
For example, an employee may feel demoralized when a lower performing employee
is promoted.
• The departments have a self-centered mentality. The functional manager pays
more attention to his department; he/she usually doesn’t care about other
departments.
• Communication is poor among the departments, which causes poor inter-
department coordination. This decreases flexibility and innovation. Moreover, there is
a lack of teamwork among different departments.
• Employees may have little concern and/or knowledge about events outside their
department. This causes obstacles in communication and cooperation.
• The functional structure is rigid, making adaptation to changes difficult and slow.
• Due to bureaucratic hierarchy, delays frequently occur in decision making.
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Functional Organization
Disadvantages:
• The functional manager may take decisions autocratically without
consulting his team members, which may not always work in favor of
the organization.
• When the organization becomes larger, functional areas can become
difficult to manage due to their size. Each department may start
behaving like a small company with its own facilities, culture, and
management style.
• Functional departments may be distracted by departmental goals,
and focus on them rather than the organizational goal.

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Project Organization
• Organizational activities are grouped into
programs or portfolios and implement them
through the projects.
• Project manager (PM) plays a crucial role in
the execution of the project. However, there
is very limited role for function manager.
• PM has full power and authority over
resources to be utilized in the project.
Controls the budget, resources, and work
assignments.
• The PM has full-time team members working
under his/her control who directly report
him/her.
• When the project is completed the team is
disbanded. Team members and all other
resources are released.

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Project Organization
Advantages:
• Since the team members directly report to the project manager, there is
a clear line of authority. This reduces conflict and makes decision
making faster and more flexible.
• Shorter lines of communication create strong and effective
communication within the project management team and response to
stakeholders’ concerns is fast.
• Due to a sense of urgency, milestones, good communication, and
cooperation, the learning curve is faster for new team members.
• Team members become versatile and flexible due to experience in
different kinds of projects.

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Project Organization
Disadvantages:
• Authority can make PM arrogant and impact the team dynamics and
initiate politics.
• Project deadline and usually a tight schedule makes the work
environment stressful.
• If the organization has multiple projects, there can be poor
communication among them, causing resources to be duplicated.
• Sense of insecurity among the team members, because once the
project is completed, they feel they may lose their jobs. Therefore, they
tend to be less loyal towards the organization.
• Cost of employees and equipment can be higher because of hiring
skilled people and specialized equipment for a shorter period of time.
If the project gets stretched out, the cost of equipment and other
resources can be much higher.
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Matrix/Hybrid Organizational Structure
• Individuals are linked to others according to project as well as
function.
• The functional manager may look after the functional part of the
project: decide how to do the work, and may distribute the project
work among subordinates.
• The PM will have authority over the administrative part of the project,
such as what to do, follow-up on the schedule, evaluate the
performance, etc.
• Working in a matrix organization can be challenging because you have
a confusing role while reporting to two bosses.
• To avoid confusion and work efficiently in a matrix organization, you
must be clear on your role, responsibilities, and the work priorities.
• Usually exists in large and multi-project organizations, where they can
relocate employees whenever and wherever their services are needed.
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Types of Matrix Organizational Structure
1. Lightweight: Strong functional links
2. Heavyweight: Strong project links
• Product development team (PDT)/ Integrated Product Team (IPT)
3. Balanced: Both managers with equal power and authority

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Matrix/Hybrid Organizational Structure
Advantages:
• Highly skilled and capable resources can be shared between the
functional units and projects, allowing more open communication
lines which help in sharing the valuable knowledge within the
organization.
• More dynamic than the functional structure because it allows
employees to communicate more readily across the boundaries,
creating a good, cooperative, work environment
• Employees can broaden their skills and knowledge areas by
participating in different kinds of projects. Provides a good
environment for professionals to learn and grow their careers.
• In functional departments, employees are very skilled, and project
teams can get these highly-skilled employees whenever their services
are needed.
• Since there is a sense of job security, employees tend to be loyal to
the organization and perform well, and therefore, the efficiency of a
matrix organization is higher.
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Matrix/Hybrid Organizational Structure
Disadvantages:
• Employees report to two managers, which adds to confusion and
may cause conflict.
• A conflict may arise between the project manager and the
functional manager regarding the authority and power.
• If the priorities are not defined clearly, employees may be
confused about their role and responsibility.
• Scarcity of resources leads to competition, which may cause
hostility within the workplace and could affect the operations.
• It is generally perceived that matrix organizations have more
managers than required, which increases overhead costs.
• The workload tends to be high. Employees have to do their
regular work along with the additional project-related work,
which can exhaust them.
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Overcoming disadvantages of Matrix organization
• Close cooperation between the project manager and the functional
manager.
• Proper and balanced distribution of authority and power between the
project manager and the functional manager.
• Any conflict between the project manager and the functional manager
must be resolved as early as possible, and in private.
• Well defined and strong communication in all directions. This is
important to gain support from executives, managers, supervisors, and
employees.
• Organizations must communicate their vision, objective, and goal with
their employees.
• Roles and responsibilities must be clearly documented and
communicated to all employees to avoid confusion.

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Distributed product development teams
• Covid-19 and developments in communication/digital
technology has widened scope
• Pros:
• Access to information about regional markets
• Access to specialized resources
• Availability of technical expertise
• Favorable location of manufacturing facilities and supplies
• Local outsourcing to increase product development capacity
• Cost saving through lower wages, infrastructure costs etc.
• Cons:
• Weaker ties between team members
• Difficult project coordination
• Higher project coordination costs
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Choosing an Organizational Structure??
• Importance of cross-functional integration
• Project organizations tend to enable strong cross-functional
integration
• Criticality of cutting-edge functional expertise to business
success
• Areas where disciplinary expertise must be developed and retained
over several product generations
• Ex- Aerospace industry, Automobile industry, Defence industry
• Utilization of man-power for most of the duration of the
project
• Speed of product development
• Project organizations are faster than functional organizations in
developing innovative products.
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 Any questions?

Thank you!

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