Global Product Development

Location of Program: Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, and Russia      Year: 2012
Program Director(s): Chris Mattson and Spencer Magleby
Participating Major(s): All Engineering and Technology Majors

Summary:

Appreciate first-hand how global companies approach issues associated with a global product development and how globalization affects us.

Recap of the Year:

Some of the objectives of the trip were: (1) to help students appreciate how global companies solve issues like developing product needs in unfamiliar cultures, design for adaptability, managing distributed design teams and manufacturing at remote and/or distributed sites. (2) Understand global design strategies. (3) Understand why outsourcing is such a big deal with companies. (4) Understand how globalization affects us. All of these goals were achieved by spending three weeks in European countries visiting industrial sites such as: Ikea, MAN Diesel and Turbo, Illutron, Novo Nordisk, and many others. The trip began by visiting local companies and observing their manufacturing processes. The group then left for Europe and visited seven different countries and their major manufacturing companies.

Participants