Cooperation of suppliers and clients with companies in the agricultural machinery industry: some evidence from Brazil

Companies in the agricultural machinery industry (AMI) in Brazil have shown significant revenues and potential growth in recent years, especially due to the worldwide market expansion for bio-fuels and grains. In order to overcome expertise deficiencies for developing increasingly complex products and achieving an alignment with market needs, companies have carried out cooperative projects with suppliers and customers. The present paper aims at identifying the most important factors for successfully establishing cooperative projects based on practical evidence collected from four case studies. The results suggest that companies should focus on getting upper management more engaged in their product development process and developing ways to bridge cultural gaps with suppliers and clients. In addition, the adoption of tools for facilitating project data exchange with partners as well as retaining and retrieving knowledge about previous projects is recommended.supplier cooperation; partnerships; client cooperation; product development; agricultural machinery; case study; cooperative project management; product development process; PDP; Brazil; cooperative projects; culture; project data exchange; knowledge retention; knowledge retrieval.