Managing supplier involvement in new product development: A portfolio approach

Supplier involvement in new product development projects has become an increasingly popular method for improving project effectiveness (product costs and quality) and project efficiency (development costs and time). One of the key issues in managing this involvement is determining which type of involvement a manufacturer should have with the various suppliers that may be engaged simultaneously in a development project. In this article, a Supplier Involvement Portfolio is introduced to distinguish four types of supplier involvement in development projects. Subsequently, suitable supplier-manufacturer interfaces for the four types of involvement are defined in terms of the direction of information flow, the communication media used, the amount of communication, the topics discussed and the functions involved.