From Product Development to Technology Development

The ability to design and introduce innovative products is business-critical for manufacturing companies. The transfer of existing technologies from one industry to another industry or cross-product lines can be a significant lever with this ability. This paper is addressing the challenges in industry and research approaches to bridge the chasm of product vs. technology development.Moreover, two existing and well-established approaches are discussed, reflecting the more product-centric vs. technology-oriented way of management: Product Lifecycle Management vs. Technology Management. Bridging the chasm between these two dimensions the “Technology Framework” is presented. With building-blocks of Technology Object, Methods & Processes, Organization and Environment the framework provides a holistic approach to enable companies to leverage information knowledge cross products and product lines. Finally, an outlook is provided for further research work to detail challenges and solutions in the interface of product and technology development.