CROWN EQUIPMENT CORPORATION: DESIGN SERVICE STRATEGY

Background
Crown Equipment Corporation was established after World War II as a manufacturer of temperature controls for burning furnaces 1950-1960, its going rapidly by producing antenna rotators 1957, They begin to produce forklift, focused to the need in industry for small, high quality lift truck for intermediate duty use in material handling.

Industrial Design at CROWN

Ive always believed that its important for things to look good regardless of what they are or what theyre used to. Over the years,though, weve gotten more than good looks for money. Good design actually lower your manufacturing costs, and we can prove it, (Tom Bidwell, Crowns executive vice president)

 Crown has established 30 years partnership with RichardsonSmith (RS) to develop their products design Crowns approach to industrial design stood in stark contrast to the most other industry

The First Real Choice

In the early 1970, Crown began to developed a new design for a counterbalanced rider truck, a product segment dominated in US by Raymmond Corporate 75% of share) 18 months of engineering and design work followed, to create their new RC . Their new RC truck, bombarded with competitors critisim, offered customeer their first real Choice

 And its brought Crown capturred 40% of Market Share in 4 years. With RR series and Other product that followed, Crown evolved from a niche player and follower to an industry leader with a full product line

Crowns Points of Success

People
Crowns talents come from villages and farms surrounding countryside. The rural background resulted the stability, a distinctive work ethic, and an individualism that contributed substantially to crowns cultureand the quality of the product. Good communication among department and dsciplines was an evident characteristic of the company.

Manufacture at CROWN
In early 1989, Crowns was manufacturing 80% of the components for its product. Their major challenge is the need to coordinate flow of this massive variety of parts. This challenge was augmented by the wide variety of product families and models Crown offerred, each of which could be ordered with any number of customized options.

 Assembly operations accommodate a high degree of flexibility They also implemented Computerized material resource planning (MRP) system. The low volumes and high product variety made fully automated assembly operations infeasible.

Competition and the Market Place in 1989

Market Place
By the end of 1988, crown was a full line producer of lift trucks, ranging from the small pallet hand truck, to enormous turret stock picker. They have 9 products categories and offerred 66 different trucks Crown enjoyed a leading position, in some categories, their market share captured 50% of share

Competition Challenges
The competitor tried to copy design, that crowns traditional competitive edge, superior design, would no longer be its exclusive domain. Major New Product development activities could not be ignored to order to compete with competitors

The Partnership Challange

The new management of RS, made Crowns wondered whether the new owners understood the special relationship between Crown and its designer partners

The Question
Should Crowns : >> Find another design consultants instead of RS? >> should they expand the number of design consultants with whom Crown Work? >> should the established of an in-house design group?

The advantage of having in house design group in Crown

Communication between industrial design and engineering would likely improved In house design group could conceivably be integrated, product development would be proceed faster.

The advantage of having in house design group in Crown

Maintaining creativity, that outside consultant havee an advantage that they have broaden exposure to different types of product

The Decision??
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