Product development key to truck and bus success

How well engineers collaborate with other business units and adhere to other product development principles will make or break companies in the heavy-vehicle sector. This article takes a look at some of those principles, as well as some recently introduced heavy trucks and buses.

The concept of a company's engineering department focusing on technology implementation and working hand in hand with other company business units to optimize the product development process began to fall out of favor in the prosperous 1990s, according to Navistar Chairman, President, and CEO John Home. “When the economy is going great, it's amazing how sloppy we can get,” he said. It's his belief that’ only companies successful in reviving these product development principles will achieve success in the future. This problem is not unique to the truck and bus industry, Home noted, and is not the only reason why companies in this manufacturing segment collectively have suffered drastically lower sales and profitability over the past year. But getting product development right will be so important to the future success of truck companies that it amounts to a make-or-break proposition, Home said. He believes International Truck & Engine Corp. (Navistar's operating unit) is “very close” to getting it right. “We've come a very, very long way,” he said. “But we're not totally there yet.” The industry as a whole, he added, also is making progress in the product development reclamation process.

Product development will be among the many subjects engineers and others in the truck and bus industry can learn about November 12-14 in Chicago at SAE's Truck & Bus Meeting & Exposition (see sidebar). It's no coincidence that International, based in the Chicago area, is hosting the event. Home is serving as General Chair.