Academic Research: Matt O'Toole Report

The new leadership in the Product Development Department of Voltz HGV, ahead in the electric and hybrid heavy goods manufacturing sector, symbolizes an epochal shift towards dynamism and a future-based outlook. The transition clearly outlined the critical need to ensure that the Procurement Manager, Matt O'Toole, re-evaluates and re-aligns the procurement function to effectively support and facilitate the New Product Development (NPD) processes within any means that may permit it. This concept bears in mind that the traditional, transactional form of procurement at Voltz HGV is transforming in line with the changes in the technological landscape. This essay explicates the benefits, challenges, and restrictions associated with early procurement involvement that rely on recent scholarly research to inform strategic decision-making.

The product development process is a procedure which is a sequence of stages that guide an idea to a market launch. The phases of the product life cycle may be six or seven. It depends on the industry and the product's character (Wlazlak et al., 2018). Vendor (supplier's) integration can be defined as the degree to which businesses interact or cooperate with the suppliers during the product development process, and different strategies and methods can achieve it. The others are supplier involvement in product development and design, supplier monitoring and improvement, and supplier feedback and innovation (Lawson et al., 2014). Integrating with the suppliers will be the way to deliver various benefits to businesses, such as reducing costs, improving quality, enhancing innovation, and mitigating risks, among many others. It could be one of the ways to overcome a bunch of company problems, especially complexity, uncertainty, and competition.

Participation in the new product development (NPD) process through the involvement of early procurement (EPI) and early supplier involvement (ESI) and the strategic practices that are popular for their significant contributions to the success of product innovation and launch are the areas that have attracted much attention, as emphasized by Lawson et al. (2014). When these methods are embedded in the initial phases of a product development process, a wide range of benefits are derived, including, but not limited to, efficiency, effectiveness, and product outcomes (Li and Cao, 2023).

Initially, Flankegård et al. (2019) affirmed that EPI and ESI are mechanisms that help companies in the design of their products to meet customer needs and the capabilities of their suppliers, as can be seen in Fig 2 by Wlazlak et al. (2018). Through the participation of procurement and suppliers in product development at the initial stage, companies can take advantage of the suppliers' competence in materials and components to develop innovative products that are novel, reasonable, and manufacturable. Helmold and Terry (2017) defined this integration as a tool that guarantees the finished project fits into market demands and, at the same time, takes feasibility and manufacturability into account, which means that the project is both responsive to the market and relevant to the consumers.

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