Design Core Competence Diagnosis: A Case From the Automotive Industry

Abstract

Abstract-1990's have been marked by significant changes both in the strategic management field, with the development of competence-based management and the use of the concept of valuecreating network, and in the design management field, with the diffusion of matrix-based tools that help to manage the interdependencies between three domains of design projects: product, process, and organization. Few researchers have helped to link these two fields. However, design managers need to use these fields closely together in order to enhance the firm's sustainable competitiveness. Indeed specialists of engineering management have already underlined that design organizations are responsible for the development of lines of products that have to satisfy distinctive stakeholders' requirements. Thus, design organizations strongly contribute to the firm's core competence. In this paper, we outline a method for diagnosing design core competence. We intend to couple strategic management concepts and design management concepts to represent and evaluate design core competence in relation to the product, process, and organizational architectures. The proposed method aims to highlight crucial design organizations, which should require particular managerial attention. The method has been researched and constructed in collaboration with a car design office, and applied in the case of a new robotized gearbox design.Index Terms-Corporate core competence, design structure matrix (DSM), organization design, project and R&D management, project teams.

Classification of competencies in design management: Individual, collective and organizational levels

“…Competencies accumulated by the designer, classified as individual, are along the value chain of companies and private domain (Jevnaker, 1993). Proactive profile (Lauche, 2005), creative performance (Belkadi et al, 2007;Lee and Cassidy, 2007), entrepreneurial character (Bertola and Teixeira, 2003;Brown, 2006) expertise of the staff (Olson et al, 2001), skills, attitudes and values of the designers (Ravasi and Lojacono, 2005), strategic and systemic thinking (Brown, 2006), technical and scientific knowledge, cognitive capabilities (Belkadi et al, 2007), tacit and explicit knowledge of individuals (Bertola and Teixeira, 2003;Van Aken, 2005), and competencies in design (Van Aken, 2005;Bonjour and Micaelli, 2010) can be enrolled as individual competencies.…”

“…The collective competencies evidenced in the studies analyzed are: structuring, communication, and integration of individuals and work teams (Jevnaker, 1993;Mishra and Shah, 2009), collaboration between team members (Olson et al, 2001;Riel et al, 2010;Robin et al, 2007), construction of networks (Bertola and Teixeira, 2003;Brown, 2006;Capaldo, 2007;Dell'era and Verganti, 2009), combination of internal and external resources (Bertola and Teixeira, 2003;Bruce et al, 1999), sharing of information and knowledge of these teams (Bonjour and Micaelli, 2010;Riel et al, 2010;Robin et al, 2007;Capaldo, 2007;Osterlund and Loven, 2005), and the construction of the project team focused on competency management (Belkadi et al, 2007).…”

“…Other studies add to the core competencies, relating aspects such as specific context (Bonjour and Micaelli, 2010), design understood as a central resource (Ravasi and Lojacono, 2005;Bruce and Morris, 1994), the integration of all the capabilities of organizations for the production of a core competency in design (Bonjour and Micaelli, 2010). Crawford (2005) asserts that competence is not an isolated single construct.…”

“…-Expertise of staff (Olson et al, 2001); -Specific skills (Ravasi and Lojacono, 2005); -Tacit and explicit knowledge of individuals (Bertola and Teixeira, 2003;Van Aken, 2005); -Technical and scientific knowledge, cognitive capabilities (Belkadi et al, 2007); -Specific competencies in design (Van Aken, 2005;Bonjour and Micaelli, 2010).…”

“…Sharing information and knowledge in these teams (Riel et al, 2010;Bonjour and Micaelli, 2010;Robin et al, 2007;Capaldo, 2007;Osterlund and Loven, 2005).…”