New product development resources

[vcebrad]

I'm fascinated by new product development. The cycles, the economics, the politics, etc ESPECIALLY in the automotive industry.

I recently read
-All Corvettes Are Red (details the years of ups and downs of the 5th generation Corvette development)
-Product Design And Development (university style texbook on all things related to prod dev)

I give them a thumbs up - I would recommend both. Does anyone else have texts or online resources for this topic?

 

[GregLocock]

Car - by Mary Walton - the story of the sucked cough drop Taurus. Very good and completely depressing

I've heard that Taurus by Eric Zaub (?) is good as well.

The Toyota Way - not much on PD but it puts it in context

The Machine that Changed the World has a good chapter or so on PD




Cheers

Greg Locock

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[mloew]

Car indeed. Very good book. Got mine signed by the author.
Also these:
The Critical Path: Inventing an Automobile and Reinventing a Corporation by Brock Yates about Chrysler and the second generation minivan
The Car that Could: The Inside Story of GM's Revolutionary Electric Vehicle by Michael Shnayerson on the GM EV1
All Corvettes are Red: The Rebirth of an American Legend by James Schefter on the C5


An excellent read also is Dream Maker: The Rise and Fall of John Z. Delorean by Ivan Fallon & James Srodes; not too much on Product Development, but lots of politics!

Best regards,

Matthew Ian Loew


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[DAVIDSTECKER]

My father has, or at least had, a book called "The First 75 Years of G.M.".
It has the history of all the branches of GM.
In it is many prototypes and concept cars, buses, and trucks that had been created.
It was a GM produced book as far as I know, but if you run across one you should look it over.

 

[EHudson]

The Reckoning, by David Halberstam, is a great accounting of the rise of the Japanese auto industry and subsequent problems of American manufacturers with good insights into some of the politics.