How interfirm collaboration benefits IT innovation
Information and Management
Product Line Design with Component Commonality and Cost-Reduction Effort
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
Dynamic Cost Reduction Through Process Improvement in Assembly Networks
Management Science
Information Systems Research
Information Technology and Intangible Output: The Impact of IT Investment on Innovation Productivity
Information Systems Research
Supply Portfolio Concentration in Outsourced Knowledge-Based Services
Organization Science
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This paper analyzes the relationship between process innovation and learning by doing in the semiconductor industry where improvements in manufacturing yield are a catalyst for dynamic cost reductions. In contrast to most previous studies of learning by doing, the learning curve is shown here to be the product of deliberate activities intended to improve yields and reduce costs, rather than the incidental byproduct of production volume. Since some of the knowledge acquired through learning by doing during new process development is specific to the production environment where the process is developed, some knowledge is effectively lost when a new process is transferred to manufacturing. We find that dedicated process development facilities, geographic proximity between development and manufacturing facilities, and the duplication of equipment between development and manufacturing facilities are all significant in improving performance in introducing new technologies. Once in manufacturing, new processes are shown to disrupt the ongoing learning activities of existing processes by drawing away scarce engineering resources to "debug" the new processes.