Mind the gap—managing boundaries in the fuzzy front end of production innovation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding about exploratory practices in the fuzzy front end (FFE) of production innovation. Design/methodology/approach The empirical findings are based on a longitudinal single-case study conducted at a multinational manufacturing company in the automotive industry. By using an ethnographic approach, our study analyzes the work of the production system development engineers. The unit of analysis is production system development in the FFE of production innovation. Findings The results reveal that little of exploration of new opportunities is taking place – i.e. limited time is spent by the engineers in the FFE – even within the development department, which was assigned the formal responsibility for elaborating concepts about what the future factory should look like. Whilst the exploration work in the FFE that do take place is individually carried “under the radar” by a few enthusiastic engineers, it is simultaneously being disregarded by an organization heavily favoring exploitation of the current practices. Research limitations/implications The research complements existing production innovation approaches with new insights on the production innovation process and how to manage exploration in the FFE. Practical implications The findings are particularly relevant for production engineers and plant managers interested in enabling and achieving more innovative and radical change. Originality/value This paper extends research on how to manage the early phases of production system development and, specifically, how to enable exploratory practices to emerge in this setting, thereby contributing to the theoretical discourse on managing exploration in manufacturing.