Customer driven product development in automotive industry : a case study of FIAT

It is a well-known fact that customers are no longer playing a passive role for the companies. They are now recognized as collaborative partners in the product development process. Today‟s fast-paced market and high competition demand causes that product development teams have a good understanding of customer needs. A customer-driven framework therefore emphasizes the central role that customers play in the product design and development process. To produce better products at lower cost and with shorter delivery time to market, many businesses have embraced a customer-driven approach to product development. Automotive Industry is one of the important industries that recognized the importance of social product development and fully embraced the concept of customer participation in the design of a new car for the rapidly changing market. The rapid shift from customers as spectators to customers as central components of product innovation is fostered by a growing need to create customized products. There are a lot of techniques which are using to understand customer needs and include them in development process. With the help of these techniques companies can create value which leads to customer satisfaction and improve quality, While doing this companies can also create their potential customers, define their target buyers and improve their quality. Some important and basic techniques like Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Kano‟s Model, and Product Development Funnel will be explained in this study. Also an industry like automotive should be analyzed in details. As a result of this analysis the trends, demands and new developments related to the industry can be determined. A section about automotive industry is included into this study to reach that aim. The product development in automotive industry is a difficult and detailed process. Some information based on customer needs and quality will be given in the study. And one of the important and recent customer-driven developed cars FIAT 500 will be analyzed according to the methodologies that will be given. While doing this analyze some strategic techniques will be used and to understand the position of FIAT 500 in the market a benchmark study will be done with other small cars; Volkswagen Beetle and BMW Mini. As a result this paper presents a comprehensive framework of customer-driven new product development and its application in automotive industry. A literature review is examined to understand the whole concept. Then, the characteristics of the automotive industry are analyzed focusing on to the European market. Also a case example is presented to demonstrate the proposed methodology and it is explained by the help of a real life success story of FIAT 500 which is re-launched by FIAT Group Automobiles. And all the documents and researches show that FIAT between the periods of 2000-2004 was far from the customer and in the crisis, but the year after 2005 a big change is observed which can be summarized in only one word: customer orientation.