The ever-increasing importance of creating and developing solutions and products that not only secure customer satisfaction but also enable cost efficient supply chain process are topical issues today. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to widen the scope of traditional new product development (NPD) process to cover the expected activities from supply chain (SC) process viewpoint. Supply chain capability creation (SCCC) process can be seen as the sub-process of the NPD process that extends the NPD process governance models, targets, key performance indicators, tasks, milestone criteria and roles. The main target of the SCCC process is to influence the product design itself and on the other hand to enable smooth and cost efficient product ramp up according to the SC strategy and supply chain models. The economics of the production and SC can be greatly impacted by the systematic preparation of the SC for the new product during the NPD process according to well-documented and implemented SCCC process. Earlier NPD related research covers well the hardware and software development but the overall SC activities have not been studied systematically as a separate sub-process. In our research, we first review the literature and then analyse a case company that represents hardware, software, services and solutions type businesses. The main contribution of this study is introducing a new SCCC sub-process as a part of NPD process. The SCCC process lowers the new product related supply chain costs due to better design of new products and systematic preparation of the SC to ramp up the new product. Nevertheless, the role of SCCC process as a means for strategic SC activities in NPD life-cycle phase sets further questions for researchers' for systematic SCCC activities even prior the NPD phase, during technology development.

Abstract:Purpose: The article focuses on supply capability creation (SCC) within the new product development (NPD). The purpose is to establish an SCC process describing the main SCC activities and milestone criteria in preparing the supply process for new products Design/methodology/approach: The article analyses the earlier research, carries out current state analysis of six case companies regarding the SCC areas and proposes an SCC process. Findings:The developed SCC process aims at preparing the operational supply capability for a developed new product based on the preferred, qualified and contracted suppliers and materials along the NPD process, and ultimately at the product ramp-up.Originality/value: This paper introduces an SCC process that has not been presented earlier in the literature, highlighting the important role of the SCC for successful product ramp-ups.

This article describes how new product development (NPD) is critical to maintaining a strong market position. However, full-scale NPD may consume too much time and resources when necessary to react quickly to customer needs or emerging business opportunities. Rapid development (RaDe) is a type of incremental product development complementing the organizations' existing NPD process. In RaDe, new sales items are created by redesigning or upgrading existing products inexpensively, and in a timely manner. This article aims at clarifying the challenges and enablers relating to RaDe implementation in four case companies and by the means of reviewing literature. The identified challenges include the difficulty of differentiating between product developments models, the lack of clear definition for RaDe and issues in product data management. The enablers include structuring and managing projects differently compared to NPD, the utilization of existing supply-chain capabilities and the designed products fitting the current business processes to enable rapid product ramp-ups.

Product portfolio management (PPM) and supplier management (SM) are integrally linked through products, buy items and related suppliers. However, the connection and alignment between these important activities are not particularly highlighted in the extant literature. Hence, the main objective of this study is to clarify the challenges in connecting PPM and SM to illustrate how they can be aligned. This study recognises and links the roles of PPM and SM to analyse and manage the technical product portfolio, buy items and suppliers according to aligned strategic targets. PPM impacts the performance of SM by regularly renewing the product portfolio, and therefore allowing SM to manage only the buy items and related suppliers that create the highest strategic fit, maximised value and balance for the company. This study recognises the need to align PPM and SM to enhance competitiveness and to focus on the strategic and profitable products and associated suppliers.

Product portfolio management (PPM) and supplier management (SM) are integrally linked through products, buy items and related suppliers. However, the connection and alignment between these important activities are not particularly highlighted in the extant literature. Hence, the main objective of this study is to clarify the challenges in connecting PPM and SM to illustrate how they can be aligned. This study recognises and links the roles of PPM and SM to analyse and manage the technical product portfolio, buy items and suppliers according to aligned strategic targets. PPM impacts the performance of SM by regularly renewing the product portfolio, and therefore allowing SM to manage only the buy items and related suppliers that create the highest strategic fit, maximised value and balance for the company. This study recognises the need to align PPM and SM to enhance competitiveness and to focus on the strategic and profitable products and associated suppliers.Harri Haapasalo is a Professor of Product Management at Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Oulu in Finland. He has two main areas of research: one in product management, product development and the second one in the area of complex systems management, lean construction and business models. He has been very active in obtaining research projects, and active in journal publications. His list of publications contains more than 250 international items. He has supervised more than 30 doctoral theses and been an external examiner for more than 30 doctoral dissertations.