Which are the limitations of ICT tools for collaborative design with suppliers?
Résumé
New Product Development (NPD) is increasingly relying on Information and Communication technologies (ICT) to support collaborative activities conducted by NPD actors. On the other hand, companies growingly integrate suppliers into their NPD process in order to enhance their innovation capability. The purpose of this paper is to explore the limitations of ICTs usage in the context of collaborative design with suppliers. To address this question, we propose to analyze usage drawing upon a functional classification of ICT tools. The framework will allow us to highlight the limitations according to each main functionality supported by ICTs. In this respect, three case studies are conducted with insight at the company level. The results show that for knowledge management and project and resource management functionalities, limitations will differ according to the use or not of a shared tool to collaborate. The study also shows that for cooperative work functionalities, some ICTs incompatibility issues might occur. Our conclusions pointed out some customer supplier relationship specificities that condition ICT usage, like trust, and power and dependence factors.