Mastering innovation life cycles from a supply chain perspective

Existing recommendations for the management of supply chains in regard to technological innovations primarily address companies in innovative sectors and are based on a snapshot classification of product and market characteristics. Yet, as technology cycles become shorter and innovations more radical, supply chains have to be realigned step by step to the developing maturity degree of a new technology. This aspect has not yet been discussed in research or practice, though technology life cycle discussions may clearly contribute here. Hence, this paper proposes an approach for dealing with technological innovations in changeable supply chains: After presenting the state of the art, technological innovation is classified and technology life cycle phases are systematised. A framework for aligning supply chains along the maturity degree and type of technological innovation is presented. The applicability and significance of this supply chain design innovation framework is demonstrated based on the example of e-mobility.