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CHAPTER 4
PROCUREMENT AS A SUPPORT AND STRATEGIC FUNCTION WITHIN COMPANIES
become vital as ways and means are found to shorten the time taken from
requisition to receipt of the order.
4.5.5 EARLY SUPPLIER DESIGN INVOLVEMENT
Early involvement is the process of relying on suppliers early, physically or
virtually, to provide support during strategic planning, demand and supply
planning, continuous improvement projects, project planning and when
developing new products and technologies. Early supplier design involvement
includes working with key suppliers in the concept or design phase of new
product and/or service development. Supplier involvement may be informal
or formal, depending on the nature of the product or service procured and the
desired nature of the relationship with a given supplier.
It is desirable to involve suppliers early on in the design phase as it becomes
increasingly difficult and costly to make design changes once the design has
been fully developed and the engineering of the product begins. This is illustrated
in Figure 4.2.
Figure 4.2:
Design flexibility and cost of changes.
Research reveals that most organisations recognise the potential benefit of
closer inter-organisational relationships. Research also reveals that teams that
relied on supplier input and involvement (when the task warranted involvement)
were more effective in their tasks, on average, than teams that did not involve
suppliers. Teams that included suppliers as participants reported important
outcomes:
• Greater satisfaction concerning quality of information exchange between the
team and key suppliers.