Methodology for the Design of Agile Product Development Networks

Abstract

Agile practices are increasingly introduced in R&D departments of manufacturing companies, with the aim of simultaneously improve the development speed and the ability to adapt to changing market conditions. At the same time, growing product complexity is addressed through an increasing number of collaborations in so-called product development networks. However, there is no systematic approach in scientific literature that combines these two trends and relates the organizational characteristics of agile product development with the design of a product development network. Therefore, this paper presents a methodology for the design of product development networks in order to increase organizational agility. The construct of agility is characterized by a set of agile attributes (AA), while the network design is described by network features (NF). To connect these dimensions, a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) model with two related Houses of Quality (HOQ) is developed. The first HOQ determines the importance of each AA based on the strategy-specific competitive bases (CB) of the company applying the methodology. The second HOQ relates the weighted AA with the NF. Thus, transparency about relations between attributes of organizational agility and network design features is generated. The methodology supports a company in the following two dimensions. First, it provides information about which NF represent the most auspicious levers for optimization measures to allow an efficient prioritization in network management. Second, it indicates the direction of optimization for each NF depending on the actual status of the network.