Bringing Project Management Practices into Automotive Programs

The way and the speed products are designed and launched into market have changed drastically in the past decades. Over this period, technical tools were developed speeding up time, cost and quality advances in design development. These tools were usually developed in an industry or institution and then spread out to many others that could also benefit from it. Such tools are particularly useful to automotive industry, since automobile is a very complex product and subjected to a very demanding and competitive marketing. Automotive projects require massive investment, a huge team and a large time span to be completed. The mentioned tools, are, however, more related to the product and to the technical aspects of design. This paper analyses the possibilities of automotive industry to improve its projects and projects outcomes by using project management practices, essentially going through FPDS - Ford Product Development System and Project Management Institute (PMI) practices, methodologies and techniques contained in its guide to PMBOK - Project Management Body o f Knowledge.