Suppliers in New Product Development: Their Information and Integration

This paper presents and discusses issues of relevance to those seeking to incorporate the information and knowledge available from suppliers into the engineering design process. More specifically, based on the findings from a questionnaire survey of practising engineering designers and managers within the UK, it indicates how many organisations may be selecting suboptimal suppliers, may be making inappropriate decisions on supplier integration, and may be poorly managing the information and knowledge available from suppliers. It also highlights a number of worrying deficiencies in current procedures and suggests areas for further development.