FHE, Inc. manufactures pumps and related fluid-handling equipment primarily used by the automobile, appliance, and construction industries. Sales and profits have increased over the past five years thanks to the company's aggressive introduction of new products.
Aggressive new product introduction has caused bottlenecks in the engineering services department and breakdowns in communication and coordination between management and departments. Lum Donaldson needs to undertake several steps to improve the new product development process at FHE, Inc. The first step involves restructuring the company. Currently, there is a need for significant coordination to successfully introduce a new product. Marketing product managers and engineering technical program managers must coordinate their activities. Phil Thomas, the vice president of corporate development and marketing, currently handles both marketing and design engineering functions at FHE, Inc. There should be a restructuring so that one m
...anager is in charge of each of these functions. Additionally, Lum Donaldson needs to be promoted to the role of Engineering and Quality Planning Manager, responsible for coordinating and planning technical programs and product managers.
Donaldson needs to address the issue of coordinating the relationship between product managers and technical program managers. They should define the requirements necessary at each phase of project development, which will help the engineering services department work more efficiently. Additionally, improving communication between manufacturing and product design managers can enhance the new product development process. Currently, the product design department recognizes that after a product is developed, it is often "thrown over the wall to manufacturing" (Schroeder 8). This lack of communication leads to compromised product quality and issues arising after products are launched in the market. To prevent potential problems related to manufacturing processes
limitations, or costs, it is important for manufacturing to have greater involvement in product design.
Donaldson highlights the insufficiency of the current new product development process in addressing the company's problem. He mentions that manufacturing already faces enough challenges with current products, and introducing new products only adds to their burden. The company attempts to predict manufacturing issues in advance, prior to production. The case reveals that engineering juggles a maximum of twenty new products simultaneously. Given this high volume of development, it becomes crucial for Donaldson to assess the cross-functional coordination among the three departments. Decisions about which products to release, how they should be developed, and how they will be manufactured require input from all three departments. If each department works independently, it will lead to breakdowns in the process.
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