Reducing the time required to develop new products has become an important factor of competition in many industries. This paper empirically tests whether management of the buyer‐supplier interface affects supplier‐related delays and, in turn, if these delays slow the overall project. Product development engineers and engineering managers in 79 assembly industry firms were surveyed to gather the data for this study. Results of analysis of covariance show that working with a supplier that has strong technical capabilities reduces supplier‐related delays. However, the benefits of commonly cited interface management techniques such as early supplier involvement, increasing the supplier's responsibility for design, and greater buyer‐supplier communication were not confirmed. A significant relationship was found between supplier‐related delays and overall project delays. The priority that the buyer's top management places on the project and the degree of technical change were also significantly related to overall project delays.

No abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

This paper examines supplier involvement in design based on survey data from 145 Japanese, 189 US and 87 UK automotive component suppliers. First, cross‐national differences in the degree of supplier involvement are examined. Second, regression analysis is used to identify factors which predict high or low levels of supplier involvement in design. Third, the effects of supplier involvement in product development on the degree to which products are designed for manufacturability are assessed. The data show that, contrary to much of the literature that suggests the highest levels of supplier involvement in design are in Japan, suppliers in the USA and UK are more likely to report greater influence on product design decisions, earlier involvement and more frequent communications with customers about design. Moreover, manufacturing planning and design begin later, as a proportion of the development cycle, in Japan than in the USA and the UK. Regression analysis shows that involving suppliers early and giving them influence over design is associated with greater contributions of suppliers to cost reduction, quality improvement and design for manufacturability. Suppliers are given the greatest influence and communication is most intensive for the design of complex subsystems and new designs, and this does not vary by country.

The management of innovation is a complex task and the management of suppliers' innovative activities is especially so because it involves managing technological factors across the traditional boundaries of the firm. This paper explores the determinants of suppliers' innovative activities by developing a theoretical model of these activities and testing this model with data from a set of organizations that supply intermediate goods to the automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the United States. The contingency model developed assumes that the factors influencing product innovation by a supplier firm depend on a key characteristic of its environment-the degree of dependence on a specific automotive OEM for its livelihood. Statistical analysis of survey data on supplier innovative activity from 172 respondents demonstrates that there are substantial differences in the factors leading to innovative activity in independent and dependent suppliers. While independent suppliers follow more traditional economic models which argue that they will innovate only if they perceive favorable and calculable benefit-cost ratios, dependent suppliers seem more willing to innovate in less clearly favorable circumstances if they are clear on what kinds of innovations are desired by their customers. That is, the dependent suppliers are willing to invest in innovation to maintain their customer base even if the results are not clearly cost effective in the short term. The implications are that OEMs that place a high priority on encouraging innovation by their suppliers must make some effort to differentiate between suppliers that are highly dependent on the OEM-supplier relationship and those that are not. The study results suggest ways in which these two types of suppliers should be managed.