An Exploratory Study on the Critical Success Factors for Design Capabilities Development

Involvement of suppliers in product development (PD) has made the process leaner and contribute significant impact on the quality, cost and time to market. The suppliers have major influence on the cost and quality of the products, since suppliers account for more than half of the total cost of production. The roles of suppliers have become more important especially those who are involved in PD. The suppliers are able to improve business performance results, productivity, and reputation, thus increasing companies' competitive advantage. To be successful in PD requires certain level of design capabilities (DC), thus huge investment is needed. However, Malaysian automotive market size is considered small and vendors' capabilities are also limited. Since, studies on vendors' DC, particularly, in Malaysia are very limited. An empirical study was conducted to explore on the critical success factors (CSFs) in enhancing vendors DC for Malaysian automotive industry. A series of interviews were conducted on selected automaker and vendors to identify critical success factors (CSFs) that are able to enhance the DC development for Malaysian vendors. There are 10 significant CSFs have been highlighted namely human resource, technology and tools, established processes, financial, culture, technical assistance, prospect market, proximity, top management and focus. The identified CSFs will be considered in developing model of DC development for Malaysian automotive vendors.