Supplier Collaboration & Innovation

A co-developed part looks like shared value until the next program needs it and only one side can reuse the design. The IP that decides who owns a supplier partnership is the kind nobody wrote down because the relationship felt like trust.

Automotive suppliers have been sitting in the concept room for years, yet co-developed parts are still the ones that miss cost targets and quote like monopolies at SOP. What matters isn't how early suppliers were brought in — it's how much design authority they were actually given, and almost nobody writes that down.