tailieunhanh - The Impact of Manufacturing Offshore on Technology Development Paths in the Automotive and Optoelectronics Industries

A number of barriers stand in the way of mainstream adoption of personal manufacturing technologies that discourage widespread home, school and business use. A chief barrier is the “chicken and egg” paradox, where today’s current consumer and education markets for personal fabrication technologies is too small to attract the attention of companies, discouraging company investment in creating products and services, hence failing to attract more consumers. Other barriers are safety concerns, part standardization and version control challenges, intellectual property issues and a lack of appropriate safety and regulatory controls | The Impact of Manufacturing Offshore on Technology Development Paths in the Automotive and Optoelectronics Industries by Erica . Fuchs . Materials Science and Engineering . June 1999 . Technology Policy . June 2003 Submitted to the Engineering Systems Division in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology June 2006 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All Rights Reserved. Signature of Author. Engineering Systems Division. May 26 2006 Certified by. Randolph E. Kirchain Jr. Thesis Supervisor Assistant Professor of Engineering Systems and Materials Science Engineering Certified by. Joel P. Clark Thesis Committee Member Professor of Engineering Systems and Materials Science Engineering Certified by. Michael J. Piore Thesis Committee Member David W. Skinner Professor of Economics Certified by. Louis T. Wells Jr. Thesis Committee Member Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management Harvard Business School Accepted by. Richard de Neufville Chair Engineering Systems Division Education Committee Professor of Engineering Systems and Civil and Environmental Engineering The Impact of Manufacturing Offshore on Technology Development Paths in the Automotive and Optoelectronics Industries by Erica . Fuchs Submitted to the Engineering Systems Division On May 26 2006 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Systems Abstract This dissertation presents a two-case study of the impact of manufacturing offshore on the technology trajectory of the firm and the industry. It looks in particular at the automotive and optoelectronics industries. The dissertation uses an innovative combination of engineering modeling and qualitative research methods to provide insights into this question. The results suggest an important difference between the two cases. In the automotive case the results do not