Developing an approach for design-or-buy-design decision-making

A key issue in New Product Development (NPD) projects is defining which design responsibilities should be kept in-house and which ones could be delegated to suppliers. This paper focuses on the design-or-buy-design decision process and proposes a structured approach to support the decision-making of a project team. The background of this study stems from Early Supplier Involvement literature and the context in which design-or-buy-design decisions should be made. Derived from two existing conceptual models, the approach has been further developed as part of an action research project in the company Schneider Electric. Within the context of this company, it is used to measure the developmental risk of the supplied product, provide a risk response plan and facilitate coordination between design engineers and purchasing professionals.