Manufacturing firms are under many financial and competitive pressures which focus attention on the performance of their manufacturing processes. In this paper the opportunities for improving the environmental impact of products within the constraints of existing manufacturing infrastructure are examined. Approaches which support sustainability in two aspects are proposed, firstly, the provisio...

This study aims at highlighting the current knowledge, practices and effects of collaborative and concurrent new product development processes in the framework of the Portuguese plastic processing industry. By means of a case study approach, the conditioning factors affecting the strategic collaborations among firms are systemized. Mutual dependence, trust, and extensive information sharing wer...

Testing products in a cost-efficient way remains an attractive topic for Model-Based Testing (MBT) of product lines in both academia and industry, which can be addressed by employing systematic and automated approaches based on models (such as feature models and UML models). Cost-effective testing products can be divided into three main problems, i.e., test selection, test generation, and test ...

Uncertainty drives project activity in new product development (NPD), and its resolution is crucial to performance. However, there a major gap understanding the causal links between different uncertainty types activities they trigger. Engineering managers lack guidance on how best respond types. We close this by experimentally contrasting responses two central NPD: technical organizational unce...

A supply chain is composed of a complex sequence of processing stages, ranging from raw materials supplies, parts manufacturing, components and end-products assembling, to the delivery of end products. In the context of supply chain management, supplier selection decision is considered one of the key issues faced by operations and purchasing managers to remain competitive. Therefore, requiremen...

Firms are increasingly involving suppliers in new product development (NPD) and one reason for this is to access technological knowledge. Previous research argues that purchasing fulfils an important role in involving the suppliers in NPD. However, purchasing’s role under technological uncertainty has not been investigated in detail. The purpose of this paper is to explore purchasing’s role in ...