The impact of NPD projects on Supply Chain complexity: an empirical research

Supply chain managers redesign their supply chain as a response to the introduction of new products. In highly innovative contexts, this ability is critical to ensure the success of the innovations on the market. However, little is known about what supply chains areas are more impacted by innovation, and therefore what actions supply chain managers should take, and how new product developers should define project portfolio sustainable by the supply chain. This paper sheds light on this issue. A case study methodology has been used to measure what are the main changes that a supply chain undergoes when an innovation is introduced. The results show that deeper innovations results in increasing complexity of the supply side, i.e. the number of suppliers, the reciprocal dependency between client and supplier, the types of orders and the relationship with traditional suppliers, and of the distribution side, i.e. the number and types of distributors