Incorporating the innovation process in a product development organization

Abstract

Nowadays in the automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) most of the innovation development is done by the Research and Development (R&D) teams driven by corporate strategies, marketing understanding of customer's needs, brand aspirations, regulatory requirements, and advance engineering requirements to surpass competitors and gain market share and profit. The literature explained that innovation comes from several sources and different methods such as design thinking approach in the organization, user-centered innovation, adapting available technology from other industries, open source generation, and clear understanding of key internal and external stakeholders' wants, needs, and interests. In this thesis, I explain the innovation process and the different types of Product Development (PD) organizations, develop historical and qualitative distinctions of innovations done in the automotive industry from multiple input sources, and create an automotive OEM system by using systems architecture principles which helped me to analyze the critical stakeholders that are required to encourage and support the innovation process. Based on the literature and my experience I create a new model for integrating the innovation process and product development process by using a systems engineering approach. In addition, I survey Ford of Mexico (FoM) PD organization to understand how innovative the organization is, and integrate the innovation process into their product development organization, applying this new framework focusing on the elements that the organization can evolve to generate innovation within their design and development activities, and to improve technical capabilities to work on advance engineering concepts usually done by the corporate office in the United States (U.S). Finally, I suggest key actions that could strengthen the innovation culture within Ford of Mexico PD.