Sourcing a strategic partner in new product development process

Abstract

The purpose of the thesis was to evaluate the current new product development (NPD) process of the case company and find solutions to the challenges the sourcing team has encountered in it. The target of the thesis was to improve communications between the teams, improve the delays in the schedules and show that the sourcing team can be a strategic partner in the NPD process.

The main data gathering method was semi structured interviews that were done with ten different stakeholders through the Microsoft Teams. Other data used was the company NPD process documentations which were received from the interviewees and the company’s intra page. From the interviews and the data received, current state analysis was conducted and the three main research and development topics were selected. Discussion for development ideas was done with the stakeholders. These ideas were reflected with academic references and through deep analysis development recommendations were built. The recommendations were shared with the teams and were recognized as useful tools to bring the change to the current NPD process issues