The colossal freightliners that are General Motors and Chrysler are starting to turn.  These giant – OK not as giant as they used to be – organizations are overhauling how they develop cars, which is sure to move industries across product development.

At Chrysler, owner Fiat is following a similar “matrix” as the Italian automaker’s operations in Europe and elsewhere, which largely involves design differentiation while harnessing similar components, systems and vehicle platforms among different cars and different brands.  For GM, the task may be even more tricky.  The General has combined research and product development into one division.  For smaller companies, this seems like a “well, duh” kind of decision, but over the years these groups have created massive bureaucracies. 

"The product development guys are rightly going to be concerned about the near-term deployment of the technology, and the R&D guys typically are concerned about farther out," Martin Zimmerman, a former Ford Motor Co. chief economist who now is a professor of business administration at the University of Michigan told the AP.  "The management problem comes when you have your budgeting decisions and there's going to be a tug between stuff that looks near-term and the longer-lead stuff."

TC previously reported on the push toward faster PD at a healthier automaker, Ford, which is harnessing additive technology for faster product development.  This was specifically demonstrated with Ford’s new EcoBoost engine, a more efficient powertrain that was developed measurably faster because engineers were able to produce more accurate parts with the help of additive tech.

This sort of speed, of course, is going to be of the essence for GM and Chrysler.  How well everyone is willing to share ideas, IT and machinery could prove the biggest story yet to be told in the auto industry.