Research on Structure and Management of Inter-firm Network for Japanese-Manufacturing Firms to Improve Product Development Competitiveness

本研究的目的是找出日本制造企业在企业间网络和产品结构方面的最佳战略。我们进行了定性和定量研究。我们通过对公司高管和工程师进行了100多次访谈进行了定性研究，并通过使用问卷调查数据和分析产品价格的POS（Point of Sales）数据进行了定量研究。我们发现，如果日本企业既能保持产品的差异化，又能创造优质的顾客价值，弥补整体设计的额外成本，那么就应该坚持整体产品结构和封闭的企业间网络（即垂直一体化）。但是，另一方面，如果日本企业不能保持差异化，或者不能为差异化收取高价，那么就需要追求开放网络和模块化设计。在后一种情况下，日本制造企业必须考虑模块化产品的动态性。模块化产品的设计变更频繁，是因为模块化设计比整体设计更容易变更，成本也更低。日本企业擅长实施模块化产品变更频繁所需的协调。为了保持差异化，企业需要通过15年或20年的长期“干中学”积累知识。大多数知识是在每个工程师的内部积累的，这个学习过程需要很长时间。另一方面，企业需要考虑功能和非功能价值，以创造优质的客户价值。为客户提供解决方案是工业产品的典型非功能价值。非功能价值必须在制造企业和客户之间创造

The purpose of this research project has been to find out the optimal strategy of the Japanese manufacturing firms with respect to inter-firm network and product architecture. We conducted both qualitative and quantitative research. We have done qualitative research by interviewing company executives and engineers more than 100 times, and have implemented quantitative research by using questionnaire survey data and by analyzing POS (Point of Sales) data regarding product prices. We have found that if Japanese firms can both maintain differentiation in their products and can also create premium customer values that compensate for the additional costs of the integral design, they should stick to integral product architecture and closed inter-firm network (i.e. vertical integration). However, on the other hand, if Japanese firms cannot maintain their differentiation, or cannot charge premium price for the differentiation, they need to pursue open-network and modular design. In the latter case, Japanese manufacturing firms have to think about dynamic nature of the modular products. Modular products change their design frequently because changes are easier and less costly in modular design than with integral design The Japanese firms are good at implementing coordination that is necessitated by the frequent changes in modular products.In order to maintain differentiation, firms need to accumulate knowledge through learning by doing for a long time such as fifteen of twenty years. Most knowledge is accumulated internally in each engineer, and this learning process takes long time. On the other hand, firms need to think about both functional and non-functional values to create premium customer values. Providing solutions to customers are typical non-functional values in the case of industrial goods. Non-functional values have to be created in between manufacturing firms and customers