Sales Growth and R&D in the Chemical Industry
Sales Growth and R&D in the Chemical Industry
复制标题
销售增长和研发
DOI：
10.1080/08956308.1989.11670580
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发表时间：
1989
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
B. M. Rushton
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
M. S. Brenner;B. M. Rushton
随着业务变得全球化，研发分散到遥远的业务单位，工业技术经理必须防止经常导致的过于短期的战略重点。这就是为什么Square D和许多公司一样，比以往任何时候都更积极地寻求外部关系的原因之一。但是，当外部关系超越邻近大学，包括联邦实验室、欧洲合资企业、亚洲联盟等时，管理技术的任务更加复杂，需要新的组织方法和工具。其中一个工具是技术理事会，它在运营仅一年后就已经向Square D的高管展示了其有用性。自1991年夏天以来，这家价值20亿美元的伊利诺伊州帕拉蒂尼配电和控制设备制造商一直是价值120亿美元的法国电气制造集团Groupe Schneider的一个部门。Square D在被收购几个月后解散了其中央研发部门，并于1992年初成立了技术理事会。该理事会由菲利普·H.弗朗西斯，公司副总裁兼首席技术官广场D和施耐德/北美，前董事先进制造技术在摩托罗拉。理事会由12名负责产品开发和制造的高级管理人员组成，他们代表整个公司及其16个业务部门。弗朗西斯解释说，这将他的技术理事会与更熟悉的理事会结构区分开来，后者通常仅限于单一公司职能的代表。弗朗西斯解释说：“这些往往是围绕业务单位的”孤岛“，而不是跨业务单位的”孤岛“。”他用“筒仓比喻来描述一系列被包围的业务单位，这些业务单位基本上将自己的信息保留在自己的手中，只是偶尔相互交流。弗朗西斯报告说，由于它是以这种方式建立的，D广场的理事会正在证明自己是“一个管理这种复杂性的理想工具，并将其集中在适合整体业务目标的地方”。寻找新的业务最重要的是，广场D的理事会正在帮助其管理人员确定从多个业务部门寻找出现的商机。“例如，”弗朗西斯解释说，“我们有两三个关键部件是从外部供应商那里购买的。在一个多业务单元的环境中，一个单元会按照自己的方式去做，另一个单元会按照自己的方式去做，依此类推，直到你的供应策略中出现一个次优化的大杂烩。这种情况会继续下去，除非技术人员以某种方式联系在一起，以便他们能够在设计中找到共性，这可能使他们能够以一种对整个公司更好的方式使用通用组件。弗朗西斯说，同样的想法也适用于通信系统架构和协议，他指出，Square D的技术理事会目前正在为公司制定一个共同的通信战略。理事会正在开展的其他项目包括审查实施技术的最佳做法（例如，基准制造工艺、可制造性设计等）和人力资源问题。“工程师往往被认为是理所当然的，有时被忽视。通常情况下，我们不会将工程师调到另一个业务部门。那位工程师通常一直干到他离职或退休。我们不会寻找机会在业务部门之间调动员工。我们也没有一个统一的招聘策略，以便我们可以针对某些大学，并寻找工程师作为一个公司。简而言之，我们没有做好职业管理工作。弗朗西斯说：“通过一个技术理事会与业务部门的人力资源专业人员合作，这类人力资源问题可以得到相当有效的解决。”…
As business becomes global and R&D decentralizes across distant business units, industrial technology managers must protect against the excessively short-term strategic focus that often results. That's one reason why Square D, like so many companies, is pursuing external relationships more aggressively than ever. But when external ties reach beyond the neighboring university to encompass federal labs, joint ventures in Europe, alliances in Asia, etc., a level of complexity is added to the task of managing technology that demands new organizational methods and tools. One such tool is the technology council, which is already demonstrating its usefulness to executives of Square D after only one year of operation. The $2 billion Palatine, Illinois manufacturer of electrical distribution and controls equipment has been a division of Groupe Schneider, a $12 billion French electrical manufacturing conglomerate, since the summer of 1991. Square D disbanded its central R&D operation a few months after being acquired and formed its technology council at the beginning of 1992. The council is chaired by Philip H. Francis, a corporate vice president and chief technical officer of Square D and Schneider/North America, and formerly director of advanced manufacturing technology at Motorola. Serving on the council are 12 senior executives who are responsible for product development as well as for manufacturing, and who represent the entire company, with its 16 business units. This, Francis explains, differentiates his technology council from the more familiar council structure, which is usually limited to representatives of a single corporate function. "These tend to be very much more 'siloed' around the business units rather than going across business units," Francis explains, using the silo metaphor to describe a collection of encircled business units that keep their information largely to themselves and communicate with one another only sporadically. Because it has been set up this way, Square D's council is proving itself "an ideal tool to manage this complexity and to focus it where appropriate for the overall business goals," Francis reports. SPOTTING NEW BUSINESS Most importantly, though, Square D's council is helping its executives to identify business opportunities that emerge from looking across multiple business units. "For example," Francis explains, "we have two or three critical components that we buy from outside suppliers. In a multiple business unit environment, one unit will do it their way, another their way, and so on, until you end up with a hodge-podge of sub-optimization in your supply strategy. This goes on unless the technical people are somehow tied together so that they are able to find commonalities in their designs that will perhaps enable them to use a common component in a way that proves better for the overall company." The same idea applies to communication system architecture and protocols, Francis says, noting that Square D's technology council is currently devising a common communications strategy for the company. Other projects the council is working on include an examination of best practices for implementing technology (e.g., benchmarking manufacturing processes, design for manufacturability, etc.) and human resource issues. "Engineers tend to be taken for granted and sometimes overlooked. Typically, we don't transfer an engineer to another business unit. That engineer usually stays with his business until he leaves for another job or retires. We don't look for opportunities to transfer people across business units. Nor do we have a unified recruitment strategy so that we can target certain universities and look for engineers as a company. In short, we haven't done a very good job of career management. "These kinds of human resource issues can be addressed fairly effectively through a technology council working in concert with human resource professionals in the business units," Francis says. …