The impact of modular designs on new product development outcomes: the moderating effect of supply chain involvement

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigates impacts of product modularity and multi-skill employees on new product development (NPD) outcomes and explores the moderating effect of supply chain involvement.Design/methodology/approach: We used data collected from 317 manufacturers to empirically examine the conceptual model and conducted hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses. Findings:The results reveal that product modularity significantly improves NPD outcomes.The relationship between product modularity/multi-skill employees and NPD outcomes is strengthened when the level of supplier involvement is high, while the relationship between multi-skill employees and NPD outcomes is weakened when the level of customer involvement is high. Research limitations:First, this study only focuses on product modularity and multi-skill employees as two types of modular designs. Second, the inter-relationship between modular designs and supply chain involvement might be contingent. Third, we use cross-sectional data that cannot reflect causal effects of modularity on NPD outcomes. Originality/value:The findings contribute to the understanding of the alignment between modular designs and supply chain involvement considering NPD outcomes. This study also contributes to the concept of modularity by identifying multi-skill employees as a type of modular design.

Implementing TRIZ with Supply Chain Management in New Product Development for Small and Medium Enterprises

“…Product components are shared across different product lines and assembly parts, which results in a considerable reduction of design efforts and inventory costs [46]. Modularity also provides high product variety and facilitates innovation, which allows a manufacturer to cope better with changing environments [47,48]. (3) Product variety: Product variety has been studied and classified into two dimensions: the breadth of a product range at a given time and the rate at which a firm replaces the existing products [49].…”

Supply chain design during product development: a systematic literature review

“…This makes it possible for the manufacturer and suppliers to provide feedback on a specific aspect of the product or process when discussing improvements (Droge, Vickery, and Jacobs 2012). However, product modularity can make the manufacturer more dependent on suppliers (Nepal, Monplaisir, and Famuyiwa 2012), as it may need the help of knowledgeable suppliers to appropriately modularise the allocated design (Salvador, Forza, and Rungtusanatham 2002;Ye et al 2018).…”

Outsourcing Supply Chain: Systematic Literature Review on Innovation Driver Factors Towards Collaborative Network

“…(Kumar et al, 2020) Technological hubs or knowledge intermediaries assist organizations in creating successful partnerships to foster innovation (Cantù et al, 2015) The new product development activities and suppliers play effective key role connecting the relationship between the IT-based supply chain and the performance of the new product. (Kou et al, 2018) Product modularity/multi-skilled employees increase new product development outcomes, when the level of supplier involvement is high (Ye et al, 2018) The role of entrepreneurial orientation is a determinant of customer value co-creation behavior (Tuan, 2017) Alliance relationships, strategic objectives, service actualization, and intrapreneurship drive the value cocreation. (Murthy et al, 2016) The strict mandatory of offshore environmental policy regulations in host countries encourages multinational organizations to localize their inventive activities, thus opening up new technological opportunities and creating new demand for green innovation.…”