Advanced design supply relationships: an evaluation model of codesign effort performance in small and medium enterprises

Within the framework of Lean Supply systems, small and medium-sized enterprises acting as suppliers of innovative product-projects play a determining role in enabling their Customers to achieve that sought-for competitive edge by fostering their ability to adapt to product, market and technological changes. Optimising the supply chain can only be achieved through a reciprocal understanding of the specificity of the relationship, that is to say, the assigned roles and the required performance parameters. From the Customer's perspective, all this translates more and more often into the need for multidimensional, multicriteria selection and assessment systems, based on traditional as well as innovative parameters applied through context-specific evaluation procedures. Sub-suppliers, for their part, must be aware of such systems and take appropriate action. The present paper presents a systematic scheme of reference for operational performance types and potential characteristics required of sub-suppliers and, above all, of the way in which they are judged (measurement aggregation procedure) in terms of factors such as competitive priorities and product life-cycle. By way of illustration, we describe an innovative methodology currently under development and implementation at a major manufacturing firm in the field of rail and urban transportation.