Understanding the role of design within the supply chain

Last decades witnessed a growing interest in supplier selection and supplier development in firms all over the world. The reasons for this interest are related to the increasing level of outsourcing faced by industries. Globalization and localization brought to collaboration with new actors of the supply chain. Referring to the upstream part of the supply chain, suppliers are key actors because of multiple motivations: they provide manufacturing service and fundamental capabilities in the product design and development process. Moreover, they help in creating and managing long-term relationships. Therefore, when coping with suppliers from all over the world, managers need structured procedures for selecting and involving collaborators who can deliver innovation to the final client. The scientific literature contains lots of papers about supplier criteria utilized by firms in the selection process. However, it lacks in investigating how designers incorporate suppliers in their own activities, exploiting their own supply chain. UK and Italy are well-known for their numerous and qualified designers. According to the Cox Review, design is becoming more and more important in the national economy. In addition, Italian design style is proverbial. Nonetheless, researchers have not devoted much attention to assessing best practices and structured procedures for designers in supplier selection. Moreover, when talking about design, literature always refers to design departments within firms or to big design societies. No attention was paid to external design consultancies. This thesis is aimed at filling in the gaps in the scientific literature. Our goal is to identify practices set by external design consultants in their process of supplier selection. The focus is on industrial and engineering designers, involving suppliers who provide materials, information, knowledge, technologies and infrastructures. Thanks to their contributions, suppliers are fundamental to provide the clients with innovative products. This master thesis is a result of a collaboration between supply chain management and design management researchers. It corresponds to a partnership between the department of management engineering in Milan and the Centre for Design in Cranfield University (UK). The antecedents for this thesis project can be found in the PhD thesis by Luca Crippa who conducted a research about the role of design in maximizing the contribution of supply chain to product innovation. Following the path already started, this thesis goes deeper into the role played by design inside the supply chain. The main objective is to understanding how designer consultants utilize their supply chain to innovate. After a deep and thorough literature review and the identification of emerging issues and gaps in supply chain management, design management and product development with respect to innovation, we determined research questions. RQ 0. “What type of supplier capabilities do external designers seek for in the selection process?” RQ 1. WHAT supplier capabilities are designers looking for, in the product design and development process? RQ 2. WHEN do designers involve supplier capabilities in the product design and development process? RQ 3. HOW are supplier capabilities involved in the product design and development process? RQ 4. WHY are supplier capabilities involved in the product design and development process? Research Question 0 consists of pinpointing a list of criteria implied by external design consultants in their supplier selection process. We analysed the literature about SCM criteria utilized by firm managers. In parallel, we conducted focus groups and interviews with industrial and engineering design consultancies who disclosure their needs in terms of supplier selection. The main classification corresponds to capability nature: hard and soft issues are underlined. After determining the list of supplier capabilities, described through parameters and sub-parameters from SCM criteria, we proceeded to an empirical survey in order to answer the RQ. We prepared a quantitative questionnaire about WHAT, WHEN, HOW and WHY external design consultants select and involve their suppliers. The result is a screenshot about supplier-designer relationship in designing and developing products. The research aims at filling in the gaps in the scientific literature with respect to design role within the supply chain and in particular, about external designers and their supplier responsibilities in delivering innovative products. The main limitation to this research is the little number of interviewees, since it is not easy to find designers willing to disclosure crucial information about their PDD process.