EUROPEAN SURVEY:  "PURCHASING CONTRIBUTION TO INNOVATION"
Important note: The questionnaire is anonymous. You have to answer to all the questions, in order to have your data validated by the system and get the access code to the final results directly in our web site.
INTRODUCTION It is a widespread belief that purchasing biggest added value and contribution to the business is brought at the early stages of conception and development of a product/service. The innovation is defined as a priority in the strategies of many top-purchasing executives. However, do the everyday actions of purchasing professionals correspond to those beliefs and strategies? Is there a big “knowing – doing” gap (we know we should do it, we know how to do it, but we don’t act accordingly) in purchasing contribution to the innovation? Those are the questions we’ll try to explore with that survey. We refer to the innovation as the process of contributing with new ideas, expertise, actions to launching new products /services or improving (differentiating) the existing ones in a perspective of cost/functionality/features/performance which create added value or a differentiation of the product/service in the eyes of the customer or increase internal efficiency.
Please, when answering, refer to your purchasing department, and not to your individual situation. 1 Is the innovation clearly specified in your purchasing strategy?   Yes No 2. If yes, how:   3. Do you have clear and measurable objectives linked to innovation?   Yes No 4. If yes, which one:   5. To what are you focusing most of your time and your efforts today?   Saving through price reduction   . Internal clients service   Contribution to innovation 6. What are your major efforts to innovation focused mainly on?   Improving existing products/services     . New generation of products/services 7. Is purchasing contribution to the innovation in your company mainly associated to?   Optimising costs Improving functionality of products Quality improvement Performance improvement Bringing new technologies Bringing ideas, which lead to completely new products Other 8. If other, please specify:   9. What is in your company the most important source of "innovation" in purchasing?   Supplier's involvement            Purchasing staff expertise 10 What are the innovative ideas or actions triggered by?   Requirement of internal clients Purchasing initiative and leadership 11 What percentage of purchasing innovative ideas have been accepted and applied?   % 12 If you were to make an estimation of time spent in tasks related to innovation as compared to the rest of the purchasing tasks, what will be the percentage of time spent in innovation?   % 13 Please rank by order of importance from 1 (the most) to 8 (the least) the following tasks according to the time you dedicated to them?   1. Market intelligence (active research for new ideas technologies, new products, new suppliers …) 2. Interface the early supplier involvement in the development stage 3. Cross functional team work 4. Value analysis, functional analysis, design to cost 5. Benchmark exercises 6. Developing relationships with internal clients 7. Measuring key performance indicators related to innovation 8. Other        14 If other, please specify:   15 What percentage of purchasing staff is dedicated full-time to cross-functional work?    % 16 Do you have full time dedicated to purchasing staff to supplier development?   Yes No 17 Do you involve suppliers in product development?   Yes No 18 If yes, at what stage?   Concept  Design  Prototyping  Launch 19 Do you measure supplier performance on their contribution to innovation?   Yes No 20 If yes, what type of indicators are your using?   21 Is purchasing involved in the supplier integration process in product development projects?   No  From time to time  Often  Always 22 Is the purchasing department measured on its contribution to innovation?   Yes No 23 If yes, what are the indicators?   24 How is purchasing perceived related to its contribution to product/service innovation processes?   Indispensable  Useful    Not useful at all 25 Is the top management recognizing the importance of purchasing contribution to innovation (is it for them a way to evaluate purchasing)?   Yes No 26 Do you believe purchasing should do more in innovation that what is actually doing?   Yes No 27 What do you think is the most important success factor in assuring purchasing as a major contributor in the innovation process?   28 Does the organisational structure (reporting, measurement, management, links between different functions, geographical locations,... ) facilitate participation of purchasing in innovation projects?   Yes No 29 What do you believe is the single expertise of purchasing that the others don't have in the company (what is your differentiated and unique know-how, if there is one)?