Product Development through Co-Creation Communities - General Measures For A Distributed And Agile Planning Preparation in Cross-Company Production

Abstract

The crises of recent years revealed the vulnerability of our global and linearly aligned value chains, and new concepts are being sought to meet ecological, economic and social demands. The possibility of producing locally at the place of need in adaptable and highly dynamic manufacturing networks is increasingly coming into focus. However, such structures would have to be built up laboriously, whereas an existing network of small and medium-sized enterprises is available in many industrial nations. Cross-Company Production (CCP) in such local networks could help to address the problems mentioned. Another recent phenomenon is the shift of development processes into the digital sphere and its simultaneous opening up to the public. Open development processes can offer considerable advantages by bundling the wisdom of the crowd across company boundaries, however the digital platforms for collaboration do not have their own product capacities. The interaction of Co-Creation Communities (CCC) and Cross-Company Production (CPP) networks could counter this shortcoming. To ensure cost-efficient production and success on the market, an early exchange of knowledge between development and production is targeted in every company through highly standardised processes in the field of Planning Preparation (PP) a subdivision of Operations Planning and Scheduling (OPS). In the new value creation constellation this exchange is limited, as high fluctuation, various developers and numerous companies involved lead to new challenges. In this approach, a meta synthesis of known innovation and product development processes was performed to gain a better understanding of their structure and to identify measures fulfilling the tasks of Planning Preparation (PP). Aligned with the principles of Cooper's Stage-Gate Process a basis of measures is built up. After that each measure is valued according to relevance and involvement for the introduced entities creating an overview of general measures. Finally, the need for a distributed and agile Planning Preparation (PP) is derived.