Supplier roles in product development: Interaction versus task partitioning

Abstract In a Danish company a new product development process was structured according to a QFD technique. Based on the company’s own knowledge of the correlations depicted in a ‘House of Quality’, the suppliers could be divided into those who could contribute to the product’s development through task partitioning, and those with whom an interactive product development process would have to be initiated. However, because such a process of division is based on the limited information of the customer (i.e. the company), a supplier may benefit from actively entering into the pre-development process in which the customer assigns developmental roles to the suppliers.