IMPACTS OF PRODUCT COMPLEXITY ON ORGANIZATIONAL COMPLEXITY - A case study at Volvo Truck Corporation from a manufacturing perspective

Paper in proceeding, 2008

It is well-known that many organisations are facing constantly increasing complexity, a complexity that has many different causes. This paper is about the relation between product complexity and organizational complexity in manufacturing. To investigate this relation a case study has been done at Volvo Truck Corporation (VTC). For the purpose of the paper it was suitable to select one of the major parts/modules in the truck, namely the rear axle. The assembly of the rear axle starts at a system supplier, and then continuing at Volvo Trucks in a pre-assembly and ending when it is finally assembled to the chassis of the truck. The organizational complexity for the rear axle was studied in these three assembly stages. Our investigation shows that different kinds of product complexity have different influence and impact in the three assembly stages. It also shows that product modularity has a big potential to reduce the organizational complexity in all of these three assembly stages.