A thorough five-year study of four top manufacturing firms in the United States documented multiple instances of firefighting. As one manager puts it: “If you look at our resource allocation on traditional projects, we always start late and don’t put people on the projects soon enough … then we load as many people on as it takes … the resource allocation peaks when we launch the project.” Based on their years of study, the researchers conclude, “There are few images more common in current discussions of R&D management than that of the overworked engineering team putting in long hours to
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