Design Dialogue Needed

While the auto industry has cut product development time from several years to less than two, there still are too many layers of management in the design operations at some auto makers that hinder communication and project timing, says Gary Cone, a partner at Global Productivity Solutions.

At two of the U.S. Big Three, Cone divulges, design functions have more than 10 layers of management. “The process is not being measured with respect to time and quality,” Cone says at last month's Convergence electronics conference in Detroit. “For example, we have a problem. We have the fix. But it takes 30 days to get through the system.”

Furthermore, Cone alleges auto makers often miss or ignore product development deadlines, which affects suppliers. “Design content grows by more than 50% after design freeze,” he points out. “But expectations are not changed when dates are missed.”

The auto industry still relies too heavily on physical models, and critical product specs either are poorly defined or over-defined. What's the solution? Cone doesn't advocate layoffs, but says the levels of organization should be reduced to five and no more than seven immediately.

“Simply put, no matter how clear (company) leadership thinks they are with respect to goals, objectives and methods,” explains Cone, “the message is not understood at the working level of the organization.”