**3.3 Company B**

Company B is one of three major national suppliers of hour meters for manufacturers of agricultural machinery and parts. The hour meter (a special timer) is an electricalmechanical device for controlling the length of engagement sessions on machines, equipment and stationary engines.

Among its major applications we find: tractors and general agricultural machinery, forklifts, marine engines, industrial machines and similar mechanisms. This product was chosen for being one of the higher revenue generators for the company, but lately its competitive edge in the market has been threatened by competition from suppliers with more technologically advanced products; as a result, the company is compelled to redesign its product, focusing on reducing its production cost in order to at least maintain its position in the market.

The research followed the steps of the integration model, proposed by Souza (2007), cited in Table 1, presented below.
