Design information for efficient equipment supplier/buyer integration

Purpose – The purpose is to describe the underlying design information and success factors for production equipment acquisition in order to support the design of high-performance production systems. Design/methodology/approach – The study employs an in-depth case study of an industrialization project together with a questionnaire of 25 equipment suppliers as a research strategy. Findings – The study provides the reader with an insight into the role of design information when acquiring production equipment by addressing questions such as: What type of information is used? How do equipment suppliers obtain information? What factors facilitate a smooth production system acquisition? Research limitations/implications – Limitations are primarily associated with the chosen research methodology, which requires further empirical studies to establish a generic value. Practical implications – The implications are that manufacturing companies have to transfer various types of design information with respect to the content and kind of information. More attention has to be placed on what information is transferred to secure that equipment suppliers receive all the information needed to design and subsequently build the production equipment. To facilitate integration of equipment suppliers, manufacturing companies should appoint a contact person who can gather, understand and transform relevant design information. Originality/value – External integration of equipment suppliers in production system design by means of design information is an area that has been rarely addressed in academia and industry. Keywords – Production equipment acquisition, Manufacturing industry, Information, Production system design, Operations management Paper type – Research paper.