The Extended Enterprise at Chrysler Group

Section 16.3.2 described how Chrysler Group deployed platform teams in its U.S.-based business. According to then-president Robert Lutz, Chrysler was on the ropes in the late 1980s. Platform teams were a response to high cost, long lead-times for product development, and outmoded products. The platform teams encouraged new lines of communication within the organization. 

No less impressive was the parallel development of the Extended Enterprise to complement the platform teams. Extended Enterprise is a trademarked term applied by Chrysler to describe its partnership with suppliers. The initiative provides lessons for partnerships between trading partners. As of 2003, the company defined its Extended Enterprise System as a Chrysler coordinated, goal-driven process that unifies and extends the business relationships of suppliers and supplier tiers in order to reduce cycle time, minimize systems cost, and achieve perfect quality.  

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