Abstract:

Customer-centric product design poses a significant challenge for manufacturing functions which have traditionally been product-centric. Large manufacturing companies that have acquired CRM systems are becoming increasingly interested in exploring the ways in which they can apply these systems not just to traditional areas, such as marketing, sales, and customer service, but also to product design. In this paper we identify the role that CRM systems can play in manufacturing product development, and we provide examples of potential applications of CRM system in the area of product development in a major automotive manufacturing company.