Abstract
Rim (Research Injection Molded) which was developed by Packard electrics was new
technology used to passing the wire from the engine compartment through the firewall to
the passenger compartment to passenger automobile. Product development people of the
company asked David Schramm to examine the RIM for its risks and benefits (Product
development people, 1999). Product development people were excited about RIM
grommet’s unlike some are dead against it. (Product development people, 1980)
Packard Electric Background
The Packard Company was founded by Packard brother in 19th century on producing
carbon filament lamps and transformers and in 1899 they moved from their existing
business to fledging automobile industry and began to produce automobile. In 1932, the
General Motors bought the Packard Company. During the existence of Packard’s the
majority of the sale was to GM divisions. During the 1980’s GM experienced competition
from Japanese imports which lead to reduction of their from 45% to 34% but in spite of the
parent company problem they were steady with their growth rate which increased sales to
other automobile manufacturers and growing electronic content of automobiles.
Packard Electronic Products
Packard’s electric executives mention Packard’s electric business as “power and signal
distribution”. (Packard electric Executive, 1980) They sold all types of electrical cabling
and connectors that are prescribed to interconnect electrical device in a vehicle. The
business was divided into two areas such as components and assemblies were components
describe the individual piece that makes an automobile’s electrical system which comprise
of cables, connectors, conduits. The assembly products were complete harness or sub
system that could be installed directly into automobile. Basically Packard’s will sell the
complete wiring system which is knows as harness for an automobile. Harness was a
complicated process which made the engineers to make it possible to install the harness in
assembly line as a single unit. It was complicated because the cabling spanned the entire
length and breadth of the car and connections had to be made at every step of the
automobile’s assembly process. Reducing the cost of engineering change orders was the
major goals at Packard electric and due to this Packard’s electric had become good at
foreign change at design process and changes per part.
New Product Development Organization
There are three functional groups in new product development which are Product
engineering, Manufacturing engineering, and Reliability. Product engineering does the
product design and engineering, manufacturing engineering responsible for developing
process for manufacturing the components, cables and harness and finally reliability is to
