{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34818"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34818","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Lean product development for the automotive niche vehicle marketplace","abstract":"The automotive low volume niche vehicle marketplace is growing, evidenced by increasing media coverage and fierce competition between original equipment manufacturers. Development of niche vehicles must be lean and therefore fast to beat competitors and keep customers interested. This thesis case studies a niche vehicle product development organization which has survived within a major original equipment manufacturer for over 11 years. This work defines niche vehicles and presents process things gone right and things gone wrong which have been identified through detailed interviews. The organization's current product development enhancement strategy is also summarized. Product development value stream mapping is used to identify process improvement opportunities for leaning the major engineering activities of the niche vehicle organization. Current state maps and desired future state maps are presented. Recommendations for approaching the desired future state are discussed. Process improvement opportunities outside of engineering are identified which work toward improving the cycle time of the overall product development process. Finally, all of the recommendations are summarized and rated on their difficulty of implementation and suggestions for future research are presented.","abstract_html":"The automotive low volume niche vehicle marketplace is growing, evidenced by increasing media coverage and fierce competition between original equipment manufacturers. Development of niche vehicles must be lean and therefore fast to beat competitors and keep customers interested. This thesis case studies a niche vehicle product development organization which has survived within a major original equipment manufacturer for over 11 years. This work defines niche vehicles and presents process things gone right and things gone wrong which have been identified through detailed interviews. The organization's current product development enhancement strategy is also summarized. Product development value stream mapping is used to identify process improvement opportunities for leaning the major engineering activities of the niche vehicle organization. Current state maps and desired future state maps are presented. Recommendations for approaching the desired future state are discussed. Process improvement opportunities outside of engineering are identified which work toward improving the cycle time of the overall product development process. Finally, all of the recommendations are summarized and rated on their difficulty of implementation and suggestions for future research are presented.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Kupczewski, Celeste D., 1974-"],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"System Design and Management Program.","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Deborah Nightingale."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2005,"date_issued":"2005","date_published":"2005","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:21:32Z","subjects":["System Design and Management Program."],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission."],"rights_urls":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34818","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Deborah Nightingale."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["System Design and Management Program."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.other","label":"Dc Contributor Other","values":["System Design and Management Program."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Kupczewski, Celeste D., 1974-"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2006-11-08T16:43:40Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2006-11-08T16:43:40Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2005"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["System Design and Management Program."]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission."]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34818"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2005.","Includes bibliographical references (p. 83)."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The automotive low volume niche vehicle marketplace is growing, evidenced by increasing media coverage and fierce competition between original equipment manufacturers. Development of niche vehicles must be lean and therefore fast to beat competitors and keep customers interested. This thesis case studies a niche vehicle product development organization which has survived within a major original equipment manufacturer for over 11 years. This work defines niche vehicles and presents process things gone right and things gone wrong which have been identified through detailed interviews. The organization's current product development enhancement strategy is also summarized. Product development value stream mapping is used to identify process improvement opportunities for leaning the major engineering activities of the niche vehicle organization. Current state maps and desired future state maps are presented. Recommendations for approaching the desired future state are discussed. Process improvement opportunities outside of engineering are identified which work toward improving the cycle time of the overall product development process. Finally, all of the recommendations are summarized and rated on their difficulty of implementation and suggestions for future research are presented."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["S.M."]},{"key":"dc:format.mimetype","label":"Dc Format Mimetype","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Lean product development for the automotive niche vehicle marketplace"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Deborah Nightingale."],"dc:contributor.department":["System Design and Management Program."],"dc:contributor.other":["System Design and Management Program."],"dc:creator":["Kupczewski, Celeste D., 1974-"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2006-11-08T16:43:40Z"],"dc:date.available":["2006-11-08T16:43:40Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2005"],"dc:description":["Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2005.","Includes bibliographical references (p. 83)."],"dc:description.abstract":["The automotive low volume niche vehicle marketplace is growing, evidenced by increasing media coverage and fierce competition between original equipment manufacturers. Development of niche vehicles must be lean and therefore fast to beat competitors and keep customers interested. This thesis case studies a niche vehicle product development organization which has survived within a major original equipment manufacturer for over 11 years. This work defines niche vehicles and presents process things gone right and things gone wrong which have been identified through detailed interviews. The organization's current product development enhancement strategy is also summarized. Product development value stream mapping is used to identify process improvement opportunities for leaning the major engineering activities of the niche vehicle organization. Current state maps and desired future state maps are presented. Recommendations for approaching the desired future state are discussed. Process improvement opportunities outside of engineering are identified which work toward improving the cycle time of the overall product development process. 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