Reorientation in product development for multiproject management: The Toyota case

Abstract

There are two primary purposes in this case study on Toyota. First, this study examines a new organizational form for product development, the one featuring the management of multiple projects and their interdependencies. Various authors suggest that the competitive environment in many industries has been changing in recent years as product life cycles have shortened and as customers have demanded increasing levels of product variety (Stalk and Hout 1990; Wheelwright and Clark 1992; Sanchez 1995). In the new environment, the strategic usage of economies of scope has become important as a competitive factor (Markides and Williamson 1994; Garud and Kumaraswamy 1995). In order to implement the scope strategy among multiple projects, the management of inter-project interfaces is necessary, which this study calls the multi-project management. This aspect of environmental change has demanded a new organizational structure and process. However, few studies have explored specific organizational arrangements that aim at the management of concurrent multiple projects. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006 Printed in Germany.