Course syllabus for Integrated product development

Quality and Operations Management 15ECTS

The main aim of the course is to highlight key prerequisites for an effective and efficient industrial product development activity, especially with respect to organizational issues, development processes, and methods and tools. The goal is to give the students a general understanding about these three areas. The organizational issues includes basic understanding about the contingency theory, the need for cross-functional integration and interaction in organizations, different patterns of communication across functional boarders and different ways to organize and lead product development projects including management of cross-functional teams. Through the look at how the development process, from the idea stage to the realization of the product, can be framed and structured in terms of phases, process steps, iterations, models, gates and milestones students will acquire knowledge about how to monitor and manage this process. Finally, the students will gain insights in when, where and how to use engineering methods and tools that work across functional borders with their primary aim to achieve integration and unity among the various functions in an organization.