Proposition of a tool to evaluate customer’s performance in collaborative product development with suppliers

In many industries, customer firms seek to successfully involve their suppliers into New Product Development projects in order to gain competitive advantage. This involvement may range from simple consultation of suppliers on design orientations to the delegation of full responsibility to suppliers for the design of the outsourced system. However, the benefit of supplier involvement depends on the contribution of both parties—supplier and customer—to complete the collaborative design projects successfully. This paper investigates the issue of customer’s evaluation expected by supplier in terms of co-design effort, and aims at proposing a model to evaluate this effort The model and the associated tool were developed with the collaboration of six French industrial manufacturers and ten suppliers, partners of the PRAXIS research project (Performance in Relationships Adapted to eXtended Innovation with Supplier).

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