PREVENTIVE MECHANISMS AGAINST DESIGN DISASTERS:
THE CASE OF VESTEL ELECTRONICS

Changes in competative market have forced firms to differentiate their products in order to achieve market success, and design is widely used used tool for product differentiation. Companies using the power of design for differantiation are apt to face with disasters, in the product development process. It is obvious that design starts in the initial stages of this process having great influence on the latter stages which may lead to damages, loses, destructions or failures originating from the design strategy itself or external factors.

How firms cope with disasters and handle them usually remain in the form of tacit knowledge kept within the borders of the firm. Vestel Electronics, which is a contract manufacturer, is analyzed in order to investigate possible design disasters, their origins and preventive approaches. The information on the design strategy of the company is collected by company reports, participant observation and interview techniques. Vestel Electronics forms a convenient base for this research since its design strategy depends on creating different products in terms of fullfilling the divergent product requests of different companies with regard to their differing needs. The company operates as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), own designer manufacturer (ODM), and/or own brand manufacturer (OBM) with respect to their B2B (business to business) customers' needs which neccessitates developing a "preventive design" philosophy.