The truck industry is one example in the industrial sector that is becoming increasingly customer-driven, at least according to Volvo Trucks. The lifecycle of a truck model is admittedly still very long, about 10 to 20 years, but customer adaptations and individual variations are becoming increasingly common.

“We can see that a more segmented market is developing, in which fewer customers are satisfied with accepting a standard truck. Most of our customers influence the design so that the truck matches their individual requirements,” says Gunnar Eliasson who is market manager for the construction segment at Volvo Trucks in Europe.

Global competition is imposing tougher demands on companies’ ability to deliver new products to the market. “The race is heating up,” says Jeffrey Liker, world-renowned professor at the University of Michigan in the USA.

Jeffrey Liker is Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering and among his publications is the best-selling book “The Toyota Way”. In the course of his research he studied what makes the Japanese car manufacturer unique, and this in turn led him to an in-depth examination of the lean production method, where the focus is on deleting everything unnecessary from the development process and on cutting development lead time.

“Lifecycles for all products are being cut as competition powers ongoing development. Nobody wants to risk losing market shares,” he explains.

As the end-user enters the product development process, many traditionally technology-focused corporate cultures face major challenges.

“All companies say that they work close to their customers but far from all do so. Because it’s difficult,” he points out.

This approach requires time together with customers; it requires a method for identifying customer requirements and then transforming them into technical specifications.

Source: http://www.volvotrucks.com/trucks/global/en-gb/newsmedia/pressreleases/Pages/pressreleases.aspx?pubId=9191