Jet Blue

Background
• Crown Equipment Corporation was established
after World War II as a manufacturer of
temperature controls for burning furnaces
• 1950-1960, it’s 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
“I’ve always believed that it’s important for
things to look good regardless of what they
are or what they’re used to. Over the
years,though, we’ve gotten more than good
looks for money. Good design actually lower
your manufacturing costs, and we can prove
it”, (Tom Bidwell, Crown’s executive vice
president)
• Crown has established 30 years partnership
with RichardsonSmith (RS) to develop their
product’s design
• Crown’s 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
competitor’s critisim, offered customeer their
first “real Choice”
• And it’s 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
Crown’s Points of Success
 People
• Crown’s 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 crown’s
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, Crown’s was manufacturing 80%
of the components for it’s 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
crown’s traditional competitive edge, superior
design, would no longer be it’s 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 Crown’s
wondered whether the new owners
understood the special relationship between
Crown and it’s designer partners
 The Question
• Should Crown’s :
• >> 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??
• Ehehhehe, ayoo diisi bapak2, :p