Management of product change projects: a supply chain perspective

Currently, a number of factors encountered in global competition force companies to pursue the more rapid development and introduction of new and innovative products and product generations. Comparatively little academic research has been conducted on product change projects in the context of supply chain management. Therefore, in this article, based on theoretical analysis and exploratory empirical results, we show that the main problems during the product change phase leading to a delayed and/or inefficient new product introduction and/or inappropriate product quality can be traced back to issues in supply chain management. Subsequently, we discuss the economic implications of product change activities on existing supply chain networks and thus on the performance of supply chain networks. Furthermore, we provide recommendations and guidelines for successful product change management in supply chain networks.