At Seagate, risk management rules technology decisions
Article Abstract:
Seagate Technology Inc is involved in the competitive disk drive market where demand for increased capacities is a never-ending battle. The company re-engineered itself in 1994 and now employs multidisciplinary product development teams to manage the development of new products. Its aim is to keep it simple and avoid the use of complicated, new technologies. By offering new products on time, Seagate is able to avoid many of the price wars being faced by other firms. Though the disk drive maker avoids unproven technologies, it does employ new techniques when appropriate. One example is the use of magentoresistive (MR) heads in which the ability to detect data bits close to one another becomes an easier task. The development teams have their work and goals scrutinized by senior staff and always ask what the customer wants, how technology can be applied to getting it and what competitors are doing.
Publication Name: Electronic Business Today
Subject: Electronics and electrical industries
ISSN: 1085-8288
Year: 1996
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Drive makers seek balance in designs
Article Abstract:
Disk drive manufacturers must implement new development strategies to compete in a market where drive capacities are increasing at a breakneck pace of 60% per year. As capacities increase, product life cycles are decreasing to the one-year range. Drive makers are being forced to bring their new technologies up to production speed in a short time, or lose market share to competitors who can. PC makers are demanding more drive capacity because of increasing demands by applications. To meet the challenges, disk drive makers are using cross-functional teams in which different departments are coordinating between themselves. Not only are company departments involved, but sometimes suppliers and strategic customers.
Publication Name: Electronic Business Today
Subject: Electronics and electrical industries
ISSN: 1085-8288
Year: 1996
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Fujitsu aims to match designs to customer inputs
Article Abstract:
Fujitsu Ltd participates in the hard disk drive market, which was valued at $1.038 billion in 1994, by providing high-end solutions. The company has been able to garner 4.5% of the global market in 1994 by focusing on niche markets like notebook computers. To help it compete, Fujitsu spends a lot of time gathering customer information from around the world. Multidisciplinary product development teams are in charge of managing the produce cycles as they move through a well-designed process, which include certain milestones that must be satisfactorily met. Development teams can consist of business managers, product line managers and regional managers. Key suppliers are also brought into the development process.
Publication Name: Electronic Business Today
Subject: Electronics and electrical industries
ISSN: 1085-8288
Year: 1996
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Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
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