Developtement of a procedure to increase the sustainability along the supply chain through integration of customer and supplier knowledge

Status

completed

Summary

Starting Situation

In the value chain of a product the task of product development requires an intense employment of human competences and physical resources. The structured use of customer and supplier knowledge enables a sustainable optimization of the value chain and leads to a substantial reduction of the resource effort in the product development phase.

Content / Objectives

The main objective of this project is the scientific founded development of a structured procedure for the integration of customer and supplier knowledge in a product development process that is oriented towards sustainability. The application of the procedure supports the effective usage of resources along the value chain of producing SMEs. This optimization allows the reduction of the resource efforts and the improvement of the efficiency in organizational processes.

The concepts for the utilization of customer knowledge (Customer Knowledge Management - CKM) and supplier knowledge (Supplier Knowledge Management - SKM) have been investigated only on a theoretical level until now. Furthermore the activities were focused on the needs of large companies. In order to be able to apply those two concepts that have an essential contribution to the sustainability of producing SMEs, an adaptation is necessary. For that purpose on the one hand there should exist information about the current utilization of customer and supplier knowledge in SMEs, and on the other side the future requirements towards those two concepts have to be identified. This information was gathered in the framework of this project. Based on the gained information a procedure for the integration of customers (consumers) and suppliers has been developed.

Methodical Workflow

The following activities will be performed:

1. Accomplishment of a representative survey for the identification of requirements in production oriented SMEs and the present utilization of customer and supplier knowledge along the value chain.
2. Scientific preparation of CKM and SKM and the related adaptation for producing SMEs. The focus for this work is set on the design of innovative and sustainable product development processes.
3. Development of a structured procedure for the integration of customer and supplier knowledge for the enhancement of the sustainability in the value chain of producing SMEs.
4. Evaluation and optimization of the developed procedure based on feedback within the presentation at producing SMEs.

Results

The results can be described as follows:

1. Review about acceptance, problems respectively deviances as well as potentials of the integration of customers and suppliers along the product development process. A study which includes the attitude towards this topic of about 30 Austrian producing SMEs was created. This report contains the requirements and basic conditions of development, production or innovation partnerships.
2. CSKM model which displays the cooperation between the stakeholders of the product development process - customer, supplier and producer - and all process parameters. It includes necessary input, expected output and resulting benefit.
3. Review about the effects of customer and supplier integration on the sustainable design of products, processes and services. The identified factors of sustainability result from this correlation.
4. A procedure (guideline) derived from CSKM model which describes the integration of customer and supplier along the product development process including selective methods.
5. Evaluation of practicability of CSKM model. The estimation is based on results of discussions with several producing companies.
6. Project idea for the continuation of the fundamental study results in terms of a demonstration project - which means the implementation of CSKM at selective producing SMEs.

Project leader

Mag. Tanja Peherstorfer

Institute/Company

PROFACTOR Produktionsforschungs GmbH
Im Stadtgut A2, 4407 Steyr-Gleink

Contact

Mag. Tanja Peherstorfer
Im Stadtgut A2, 4407 Steyr-Gleink
Tel.: +43 7252-885-452
Fax: +43 7252-885-101
E-Mail: tanja.peherstorfer@profactor.at
Internet: www.profactor.at