Supplier integration in product development: A matter of designing the project structure

Abstract

In product development close collaboration between systems integrators and suppliers is important. The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of the work breakdown structure (WBS) and work packages (WPs) in product development on the possibility of carrying through the strategy of supplier involvement into collaborative practice and to investigate how supplier involvement can be improved by altering the design of collaborative WBS and WP structures. Dependence Structure Matrix (DSM) is introduced in order to analyse, visualise and manage interdependencies, in terms of information exchange between the systems integrator and supplier. This article shows how DSM can support the alternative design of integrated and collaborative WBS and integrated WPs following the logic of dependencies and the flow of information in order to support a strategy focusing on integration of suppliers on project and team level.