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R&D management of Chinese auto industry
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-04-14 16:57

But in order to future implementation, enterprises should not only understand their own capabilities in the industry, but also know what the best practices are.

There are two major evaluation systems to evaluate the product development competencies:

·           Based on components, such as engine, transmission, etc.

·           Based on R&D methods, such as CAE capabilities, road test, etc. 

Normally the self evaluations of local companies are mainly based on the latter. But it always leads to investment competition, and sometime cannot result into success or efficiency. After the implementation of many projects, Arthur D. Little insists in using components as the start point to build the evaluation system. The reasons are as follows:

·           Reason for outsourcing: The outsourcing trend of the complete vehicles R&D today are more and more obvious, some 3rd party R&D service providers or compatible suppliers are also accepted the part of the R&D process.

·           The operational reason: The automotive R&D is based on products, the R&D capabilities of components are useful to evaluate the R&D competencies

·           The spec of parts: The detailed R&D competencies of different parts are differential. For example as approval tests, different test need quite different equipment and engineer knowledge structures. It is not enough only to compare the CAE, CAD abilities in general.

Following is a sample structure of components competencies breakdown: (See figure 5)

Figure 5: Competences in the different systems

 

R&D management of Chinese auto industry

R&D management of Chinese auto industry
Source: Arthur D. Little


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