Technology Supply Chains: Concurrent Design and Development of Product, Process, and the Supply Chain

The processing equipment sector plays two unique roles in the economy: (1) it provides the tools for all the other manufacturing sectors and (2) its products embody the accumulation of generations of process technology and manufacturing innovations. In comparison with product design and development, relatively little attention has been given to the issues of manufacturing equipment development and sourcing. As firms become more competent in product development, success in the marketplace may depend increasingly on process technology skills. This project seeks the answers to two questions: How should equipment users structure or influence their relationship with their suppliers? When should equipment users develop or manufacture equipment internally rather than buying from independent equipment providers?

Using a survey instrument, this project is gathering information on many customer-supplier pairs drawn from the electronics and metalworking industries in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. In the electronics industry the work focuses on semiconductor process equipment; in the metalworking industries attention is directed toward the automotive industry and other major users of machine tools.