Lately, a lot of people have asked me what it means when a manufacturer says their vehicle or component is in production. I suspect I am getting asked this question because we are seeing brand-new entrants into the medium- and heavy-duty truck manufacturing space, and fleets are trying to determine when these trucks will actually be on the road.

Back in 2020, Rick Mihelic, NACFE’s director of emerging technologies, was lead author on a thought leadership paper titled Defining Production. One thing we found is that no industry has agreed on a single definition of what being in production means.

The thing is, getting a vehicle to full production is a time- and resource-consuming process. As Rick pointed out in the report, “It is relatively easy to create show trucks for public events and low-volume prototypes for limited track and road testing as a judicious application of money, priority, and people can get one to a few built in six weeks to six months. Commercial production trucks, however, to be legally and safely classified as production, can take years (four to six years is common).”

In researching the report, we found 14 different definitions of in production, ranging from “first vehicle off low rate production tooling, limited option content available” to “full rate production line at facility, factory staff trained, supply chain fully operational.”

This lack of a standard definition can make it difficult for fleets to plan long-term on what trucks to buy and when. It can be difficult to determine when the product will actually be available, especially since new product launches are often announced during highly choreographed events that too often take place well before the product is anywhere near production-line ready.

Obviously, technology development is a process that ideally reduces risks through time and investment in manpower and resources so that when the trucks are actually being manufactured, the bugs have all been worked out. However, it can be difficult to pinpoint where a manufacturer is in the process because, as an industry, we cannot agree on what in production means.

Maybe it’s time for the industry to come together and agree on a definition of in production so that everyone understands exactly what it means. And, frankly, it does not really matter whether that definition is the first vehicle off low-rate production tooling, limited option content available, a full-rate production line at the facility, factory staff trained, the supply chain fully operational, or something in between, as long as we all agree.

I always think words matter, and when it comes to in production, not only do the words matter, but the definition of those words is critical.