Determining phase transitions for aligning the supply chain strategy along early life cycle phases of product innovations

Due to their hardly predictable progress through life cycle phases, innovations are particularly challenging for a company's supply chain. For an adequate adaption of the supply chain strategy it is necessary to timely identify life cycle phase transitions. This paper proposes an indicator-based framework for the determination of an innovation's life cycle phase transitions in order to timely align the supply chain strategy. The findings are a crucial step in designing a holistic approach for the efficient design of supply chains along an innovation's life cycle.