International Motor Vehicle Program

The International Motor Vehicle Program ( IMVP ) is the oldest and largest international research consortium that aims to understand the challenges that face the global automotive industry. It launched in 1979, sponsored by the German Marshall Fund, as a five-year research project entitled The future of the automobile. Located it was the newly founded " Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development " at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, which was led by Daniel Roos.

1985 Roos succeeded to organize the funding for a very long follow-up project, which started now with the title IMVP. This project was also located in the line at MIT, but was organized internationally across different faculties. With this study, the IMVP began to institutionalize itself. This was followed by further work and since 2010, the IMVP a largely virtualized, Institution represents that preferably deals with management issues in the automotive industry. The IMVP has set the standard for research in the industry with the most developed in the projects methods.

The MIT study

The original IMVP study is often simply quoted in Germany as " The MIT study ". It extended over five years from 1985 to 1991. During this period a total of 54 experts have studied the manufacturing processes in the automotive industry, headed by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones in 15 countries.

Many of the researchers have been extracted directly from executive positions in the automotive industry for the study. The automotive industry has encouraged its employees to take this step helped that the researchers were given access to works and also sponsored the program with more than five million U.S. dollars.

All time major automotive groups in the world were involved, was a distinction between volume vendors such as Volkswagen, Fiat, Volvo, Renault, General Motors, Ford, Honda and Toyota as well as specialists such as BMW and Porsche. Overall, they visited 90 assembly plants and examined hundreds of suppliers.

In order to compare, the scientists defined a complete set of operations which is necessary for the production of a vehicle and comparing the sequences at that level. Here, market research, product development and design, coordination of the supply chain, order processing in the works, the sale and the service were included.

This study was well known far beyond the circle of professional science and interested sponsors addition. The audience capable final report prepared by Womack, Jones and Roos has been translated into eleven languages ​​and sold over 600,000 times, reaching as textbook bestseller novel dimensions and made the embossed during the study term " Lean Production " known worldwide.

The International Motor Vehicle Program ( IMVP ) had a major impact on the global automotive industry and its affiliated economy.

The IMVP as an institution

Since 2000, the " International Motor Vehicle Program " ( IMVP ) established as a brand. The term is no longer used for the original, single but very extensive research program, but the appointment of a consortium of researchers who work regularly in institutional form.

The website, " IMVP " gives this virtual organization an institutional framework. There, the structured into four phases work of the project, which started in 1980 is presented ::

• Phase One (1980-1984) was the identification of trends in the global automotive industry and conducted competitive analyzes.
• Phase Two (1984-1990) examined the competition and brought forth the basic productivity- comparative studies that have been summarized in the book The Machine That Changed the World by Womack, Jones and Ross.
• Phase Three (1990-1999) dealt with the shifts of power within the global supply chain, the development of industrial production concepts, and the challenges of a sustainable balance between social, environmental and economic requirements of the automotive industry. The main results were published by Charles H. Fine in clock speed.
• Phase Four (2000 - ...): In September 2000 the IMVP a program entitled " Navigating car 's Next Economy (Next Auto)" started. Main research interests are management concepts for the Extended Enterprise (benchmarking the value chain, modularization and outsourcing, product development strategies, Transnational Competence Development ), E- Automotive ( Internet-based supply chains and logistics centers, web based Mass Customization, visions of a sustainable future ( Green driving techniques, new materials, recycling and environmental management, mobility solutions).

The proven benchmarking programs for the comparison of productivity will continue.