A Literature study on Factors that enables Communication between R&D and Manufacturing

Abstract: Communication, coordination and cooperation are critical for a successful organization. This master's thesis work presents a literature study of the factors that influence the interface between Research & development and manufacturing functions. Research & development and manufacturing functions rarely share information among each other and rarely combine their skills and knowledge to produce effective and efficient work within organization. This is due to lack of mutual understanding improper communication and coordination among members in the teams. In the late 1990's, competition, Information Technology proliferation, increasing customer demands for better products at shorter lead times emphasized increased need for effective product development. Each function has its specialization and is effective in their domain. Each department has roles and responsibilities to complete given tasks. But they neglect the organizational and management issues and lack the focus where they are a part of a bigger process (i.e. delivering value to customer and making the company successful at the end of the day). The main focus of the thesis is to give deeper knowledge on communication and coordination between Research and Development and manufacturing. This is achieved by review of the articles, analysis and finally synthesis of literature to develop constructs and analysis models. This will help to understand the factors and its interaction. The factors identified are individual responsibilities, artefacts and system or domain understanding, communication idea, control and role distribution, teams, accessibility and arena for personal meetings and finally overall leadership. Each factor has its own and unique contribution to success with in the organization. These factors are interrelated and dependent on one another. Artefacts understanding deals with some actions and steps has to be taken in order to executive the give tasks, individual role plays an important role in what sense he\she will contribute to the team as well as to the organization. Even active responsibilities must understand the system or domain and quickly adjust to the environment and get practice on it. Teams are essential tool in any organization, working together creates creative problem solving,  improves effective of communication, improves development skills and ability of an individual, mutual understanding and cooperation among group members all will constitute to the teams. Finally teams are the critical building blocks of an organization. The model developed needs further testing through empirical evidence to increase its validity.