Purchasing involvement in product development : a framework

Both within academia and practice, the involvement of purchasing and suppliers in product development has attracted considerable attention during the last decade. However, most research is limited to the context of single development projects, focusing on possible short-term contributions such as the reduction of development lead-time. Long-term issues like technological alignment between supplier and manufacturer are relatively ignored. Therefore, this article seeks to develop a coherent framework of specific activities across a number of different management areas within purchasing involvement in product development. Such a framework may help to implement, improve and audit this involvement