Title: Refreshing collaborative product development: a case study on Taiwan's IT industry

Authors: Ming-Kuen Chen, Yi-Ching Liao, Howard Hao-Chun Chuang

Addresses: Institute of Commerce Automation and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, 1, Sec 3, Chung-Hsiao E. Road, Taipei (106), Taiwan. ' Institute of Commerce Automation and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, 1, Sec 3, Chung-Hsiao E. Road, Taipei (106), Taiwan. ' Department of Information & Operations Management, Texas A&M University, 330 Wehner Building, 4113 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77843–4113, USA

Abstract: With the trend of keener competition nowadays, qualified Original Design Manufacturing (ODM) players must be able to take charge of product design and development and integrate value chain members, such as vendors and suppliers of key parts, to cowork seamlessly in Collaborative Product Development (CPD) processes. Therefore, this research aims to figure out why and how ODM players refresh CPD, so the authors chose an ODM player in Taiwan|s Information Technology (IT) industry as the object of the case study. By means of expert interviews, panel discussions and participative observations lasting for a year, the authors penetrate into the dynamics and increase the understanding of CPD processes. The paper demonstrates the essences of refreshment such as the business model, the operations model and IT the model. Moreover, the CPD processes of RX150T are clearly exhibited so that the readers can clearly understand the scenario. Afterwards, the authors shed light on the issues and enablers, identify the Key Successful Factors (KSF) and summarise the positive effects. Such a case study wishes to provide insights for practitioners of CPD and be a useful referral for ODM players to adjust their implementation of CPD.

Keywords: collaborative product development; CPD; business process reengineering; BPR; original design manufacturing; ODM; product data management; PDM; case study; Taiwan; information technology; IT industry; product design; collaboration; value chain; critical success factors.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2009.023230

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2009 Vol.5 No.2, pp.135 - 158

Published online: 15 Feb 2009 *

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