Ramp-up process improvement practices for time-to-market reduction

Abstract

The importance of the "Ramp-up bridge" covering the gap between product development and serial production, as well as the speed at which this bridge can be crossed, has increased, providing companies with a significant competitive advantage. However, a significant percentage of project aiming to introduce new products do not achieve their goals. [(60 percent of the automotive supplier ramp-up projects fail on either the technical, or the economic side (Bischoff, 2007)]. The author explores the possible reasons, then makes suggestions regarding the support of successful ramp-up projects, through practical examples taken from the industry. Through the continuous improvement of ramp-ups, a new core competency can be achieved, with a decrease in time-tomarket. This core competency is difficult to duplicate, and can provide an additional competitive advantage for companies manufacturing products with high technical complexity.