Challenges in globally distributed product design teams: A case study

This paper describes barriers to effective collaboration between geographically distributed experts jointly participating in design of medical products. The barriers were observed during a study conducted at a company which produces implantable medical devices such as pacemakers and defibulators, but the issues are typical of most international product producing companies. The company commissioned the study because they experienced serious manufacturing difficulties after moving their manufacturing facility to a new location where labor was less expensive, several thousand miles distant from design facility The company suspected that the difficulties stemmed from insufficient communication and collaboration between the now distant design engineers and manufacturing engineers, but they lacked a sufficiently detailed understanding of the causes to formulate effective solutions. Electronic tools had not resolved the problems. The study found that the added distance greatly exacerbated many existing design/manufacturing collaboration challenges that occur in most organizations even when the two are located at the same site. Additionally, distance resulted in a decay of familiarity between sites with the people, processes and expertise at the other site. More explicit structure and incentives were needed to help distant team members overcome the added collaboration difficulties created by distance. The study concluded that one while one needs appropriate electronic tools to make it possible for distant design team members to communicate easily, additionally, an organization must provide appropriate processes, incentives and resources to motivate people to collaborate over distance.