How To Move Supply Chain Beyond Cleaning Up After New Product Development

Purpose – Improving alignment between supply chain and new product development (NPD) can enhance market impact and revenue growth. Additionally, it can remove a lot of frustration for supply chain managers, who currently are often the last to find out about NPD, whereas their contribution is crucial when it comes to getting products to market on time and in the right volumes. Whereas a recent research note published in this journal offered possible avenues for progressing alignment between NPD and the supply chain, this paper seeks to offer insights from industry on how to actually achieve progress. Design/methodology/approach – This paper offers insights from industry in three areas of practice and a report on the outcome of a workshop of supply chain executives. Findings – The experience from case companies shows that companies are making progress in aligning NPD and the supply chain by improving basic alignment, improving supply chain readiness and leveraging supply chain capability to make NPD better. Practical implications – In addition to case examples, a set of screening questions for supply chain managers to bring to alignment meetings with NPD are offered, supporting a growing supply chain contribution to NPD. Originality/value – Following on from a research note published in this journal, this paper offers experiences from companies that have actually made progress with improving alignment as well as results from a focused workshop of senior supply chain executives. Together these findings can assist in making the path forward suggested in the research note a reality in practice.