A QFD- and concurrent engineering-based outsourced product development methodology for ODM customers

Although the original design manufacturing (ODM) outsourcing business model has been quite popular among various industries, many ODM customers do not have dedicated product development methodologies for their ODM-outsourced product development. Instead, they use their in-house methodologies that often lead to serious quality issues and schedule delays during the product development process. In order for the ODM outsourcing project to succeed, a dedicated product development methodology is necessary for an ODM customer to develop products with its ODM suppliers. The objective of this article is to present a quality function deployment- and concurrent engineering-based outsourced product development methodology for ODM customers to use in place of their current in-house product development methodologies. Fifteen people from nine Taiwanese electronics companies were interviewed regarding their ODM-outsourced product development process. Findings from these interviews were used to develop the proposed methodology. Three case studies focusing on the implementation of the proposed methodology in successful projects are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.