The download is 13 pages and well worth the read for insights, discussions of pro and con, plus how-to. Vendors
Excerpt: Faster technology developments coupled with increased dynamics of competition are re-shaping virtually every sector of the market and are pushing NPD in the strategic core of business activity.
The benefits of earlier and more extensive involvement of suppliers in NPD are well documented in existing research and include better project performance in terms of speed, productivity, quality and cost. To realize these benefits, firms have increasingly relied on R&D collaborations. Organizations have started to open their R&D departments and move from in-house, closed R&D approach, toward open innovation and collaboration. Suppliers’ involvement in new product development has become not only important, but for many companies inevitable.
Organizations increasingly rely on their R&D suppliers to innovate successfully. Strategic technology suppliers in particular play a significant role in providing an organization with key external technologies that open innovation advocates see as critical to enable companies to compete successfully.
Supplier relationships in NPD: Problematic
Nevertheless, abounding evidence shows that efforts to involve suppliers in early phases of NPD are not always successful and, in some cases, can even create impediments in product development. Moreover, an estimated 46% of the resources that companies devote to the conception, development and launch of new products go to projects that fail in the marketplace or never make it to market.
The ability of organizations to benefit from R&D collaborations and innovation with suppliers varies depending on a range of factors
Read introduction and download pdf herevia Enterprise innovation articles. From Innovation Tools
Accounting and Small Business /Beverly Shares 