Integrated business model and product realization model of tier 1 suppliers

Purpose and goal

The purpose of the project is to enable tier one and tier two suppliers to establish their own contacts with end users of the final product. The project shall create knowledge on how suppliers shall proceed to transfer their business model and product development model for this purpose. The supplier shall establish its own predevelopment process and have direct contacts with the end user to better understand the requirements of the product. The idea is that the supplier by doing this shall strengthen its own and the OEMs added value to the end user of the product in a sustainable way. In the present situation negotiations aiming at pure prise reductions has taken place instead of discussions about added value and innovations (Henke 2009). The suggested research shall contribute with knowledge on how to improve collaboration between suppliers and OEMs based on knowledge about the product to achieve more value to the end user rather than focus in price reductions.

Results and expected effects

Results will be methods to transfer the business model and the product development model to be more advanced in the sense that the supplier will use input from the end user in its product development work rather than receiving this solely from the OEM. The project will also develop methods to measure the effect of this change. The aim is that the results shall be easy to use by the participating companies without external help. The participating companies are expected to implement the results in their own business and by that strengthen their competitiveness. The project shall also lead to deepened relations between researchers at universities and researchers at research institutes. One individual from Swerea IVF shall commence post graduate studies at Chalmers within the framework of the project.

Approach and implementation

The project is a collaboration project between Swerea IVF and Chalmers University of Technology. Participating companies are Kongsberg Atomotive AB, Autotube AB, Scania CV AB, Volvo Personvagnar AB and Autoliv Sverige AB. The first two companies will participate fully in the project work and the last three will participate as reference companies. One person from Swerea IVF AB will start post graduate studies at Chalmers. The result from the project will be disseminated through well established channels such as: Chalmers training course in lean product development, Swerea IVFs interest group of lean product development and the interest group of Swerea IVF AB. The approach to be used is to define one advanced model and one simple model incorporating both the business model and the model for product development of a supplier company. The simple model shall be compared with the current state of Kongsberg Automotive and Autotube. The parameters that have to be change to move towards the more advanced model shall be identified.