A Comparative Study of Production & Labor Systems between Japanese and German Machinery Equipment Industry

1993年，我们对汽车、电子和机床三个机械装配行业的产品开发管理进行了广泛的调查。至于汽车行业，我们在了解其产品开发过程的整体特征时遇到了一些困难，因为它的领域非常广泛，分工非常复杂。但随着国内市场需求的增长，越来越多的新车被开发出来，这种不断增长的发展带来了开发技术的显著进步，特别是CAD/CAM软件技术的进步，从而产生了一种新型的产品开发网络组织，并借助计算机网络进行了发展。这个系统从上到下紧密地集成了整个领域，即汽车制造商，即支持开发过程的分包商；我们认为这个系统是“产品开发网络”，我们…进一步研究了其在提高发展效率中所起的作用及其演变趋势。与汽车行业相比，电子和机床行业的这种演变不那么明显；然而，我们可以在任何产品不同的地方识别出某种相似的演变特征。在汽车和电子行业的“产品开发网络”中，应注意的具体特征是：总装人员的产品开发多样化，对其效率的要求越来越高；零部件供应商的开发组织和职能得到强化；原型准备的模具制造等支持活动越来越多地转移给分包商。根据我们的采访，这种分散式的产品开发体系加快了开发过程中的沟通和合作，丰富了开发内容。“泡沫”经济的破灭适度偏离了这种收缩重组的新趋势；然而，基本轮廓预计将转移到下一代的产品开发活动上。较少

In 1993, our survey concerning product development management has been carried on extensively in three machinery assembly industries, namely automobile, electronics and machine tool. As for the automobile industry, we've come across some difficulties to perceive the entire feature of its product development process because its sphere is very extensive and that the division of labor is very complex there. But due to the growth of demands from domestic market, more and more new cars have been developed and this growing volume of development has brought about striking advancement of development technology, especially software technique for CAD/CAM.Consequently, a new style network organization of product development has emerged and developed by virtue of computer network. This system integrates firmly the whole sphere from the top, namely car makers, to the bottom, namely subcontractors supporting the development process ; we perceived this system as "product development network", and we … More studied its role to play in raising up the efficiency of the development and the tendency of its evolution. This evolution has been detected less evidently in electronics and machine tool industries in comparison with automobile industry ; we could identify, however, a certain trait of similar evolution wherever products were various. In "product development network" of automobile and electronics industries, specific traits to notice are as follows : product development of final assemblers has been diversified and more and more efficiency is required for it ; development organization and functions of component suppliers have been intensified ; more and more supporting activities such as die & mold manufacturing of prototype preparation are transferred to subcontractors. According to the interviews we had, this decentralized type of product development system accelerated communication and corporation in development process and enriched its contents. The burst of "bubble" economy deviated moderately this new tendency to shrinking reorganization ; the basic outline, however, is expected to be transferred to product development activities of the coming generation. Less