Creating a competitive edge when designing production systems - facilitating the sharing of design information

Abstract

When designing production systems, design information must be shared among functions at the manufacturing company and the external equipment supplier in order to integrate the various work activities. In this paper, factors facilitating the sharing of design information are analysed based on an in-depth case study of a supplier in the automotive industry. First, our findings show that the sharing of design information is promoted by formalisation. Second, informal coordination mechanisms are more crucial for internal integration between specialised functions than for external integration with the equipment supplier. Finally, our findings indicate that personal and language barriers appear more difficult to overcome than organisational bounds or geographical distance. Altogether, the findings provide strong evidence for the importance of sharing design information when designing more sophisticated production systems.