HAVE PROCESS INDUSTRIES SHIFTED THEIR CENTRE OF GRAVITY DURING THE 90s?

Product development is often seen as a main tool for competitiveness in organizations. In process industries, like steel and paper, process and product development are seen as an integrated part. Product development has often been the result of a process development. Heavy investments and costly production give process a priority role in product development. The role of customers and suppliers in development work has increased for process-based companies. This change will have implication on how to organize and manage development in the traditional upstream companies. Therefore, this article presents results that show some of the implications of the changed situation for Swedish processbased companies. The article also emphasizes that there are indications of a shift of traditional upstream companies’ centre of gravity due to the changed perspective in development work, towards customer focus.