IS principles in action case: Honda uses collaboration software to speed product development
Why did Honda resort to a software package to support this critical business process rather than develop a custom application to meet its needs
Honda is the world's largest motorcycle maker and Japan's third largest automaker behind Toyota and Nissan. It also has
a power products division that manufactures lawn mowers, snow blowers, portable generators, and outboard motors. The
company's car models include the Accord, Acura, Civic, Legend, Prelude, and Insight-a gasoline-electric hybrid.
The automobile industry is intensely competitive, with manufacturers facing cut-throat global competition. They are under
pressure to reduce costs to the minimum and pass the savings along to customers. They must also reduce the time to produce
new models that appeal to customers in many parts of the world while tailoring automobiles to customer specifications. To
overcome these challenges, manufacturers are turning over an increasing portion of their design, development, production,
and customer-support activities to multiple suppliers and other business partners. Such collaborative product development is
changing the way Honda brings products to market.
The research and development activities for Honda use software called eMatrix from MatrixOne to support collaborative
product development. This Internet-based system helps document and manage the product's bill of materials (BOM)-
a list that describes all components of the finished product, such as part numbers, quantity, measurements, and labor and material costs. An accurate and complete BOM is critical to the manufacturing process-any mistake can cost the manufacturer in loss of labor and materials and valuable time-to-market. eMatrix enables Honda research and design engineers to
share design information from the early stages of product development so that the accuracy of the engineering BOM is
greatly improved. The system supports engineers as they manage and configure all the details that go into a product:
basic car design, options, features, local variations, components and larger assembled parts, specifications, supporting
documentation, costs, and engineering changes. The single, accurate view of the engineering BOM across all organizations
involved in the product ensures that most design and development issues are identified and resolved earlier in the design and manufacturing cycle. Such coordination leads to the early detection and resolution of many problems-saving
time and resources. The bottom line is higher quality, decreased costs, and the ability to bring automobiles to market
faster.
The eMatrix system is being deployed in multiple stages with the ultimate goal of linking Honda's global research and
design activities wherever they are located. The first phase of the rollout was completed in October 2001 and connected
several thousand design engineers throughout Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Thailand. The software
vendor, MatrixOne, partnered with Fujitsu to deploy the eMatrix platform and integrate it with Honda's other key information
systems.