There are some traps organizations routinely fall into when they try to make large-scale changes, and these may be especially applicable when the changes are likely to cross technical and organizational boundaries. The recent experience of the automotive industry suggests that we are not immune to these threats. We see three particular pitfalls or mistakes that will undercut or delay the benefits of e-commerce. E-commerce will not, in and of itself, correct all the industry s problems simultaneously, whether we look at manufacturing or engineering productivity, design effectiveness, or successful marketing. It may be an appropriate tool to use in addressing each of those problems, but will need to be adapted to each situation and properly coordinated with other necessary efforts.
Companies often look to quick silver bullet solutions to their problems.
For example, the industry has invested money, energy, and hope in numerous broad efforts to solve massive, diverse, and endemic challenges. These attempts ranged from the robotics wave of the 1970s and 1980s through the lean production wave of the 1990s. These and other efforts all fell short of our initial expectations, and that often slowed down their appropriate use and delayed their benefits. Little or no improvements will come from the rote imposition of e-commerce techniques on bad practices. Indeed, a wide range of business practices must themselves change if we are to reap the full promise of e-commerce.