Determinants of new product designers' satisfaction with suppliers' contributions

A recent trend in product development is the move to outsource more of the design and development work. Specifically, manufacturing firms are looking to component suppliers to increase their roles from that of supplying specified components to that of sharing in or taking major responsibility for component design and development. Effective teaming of product designers and the allied suppliers is likely to become an increasingly important element in the product innovation process. However, this role may be unfamiliar to both product development staff and component supplier staff. This study examines perceptions of new product designers about the component suppliers they used for the design of critical technology in recent new product development projects. The study focuses on how the suppliers were viewed in terms of their technical capability and how it contributed to the project, as well as their capability to work effectively with the product design team. Results indicate that the cooperativeness of the supplier was probably more influential than its technical competence in influencing the willingness of the product designer to bring the component supplier into future development projects. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.