... define the supply chain of manufacturing ( similar to where I am employed ) focused on the business processes that began with securing materials for production and ending with the logistics required to deliver finished products to the consumer. This disregards an earlier , crucial set of activities that are extremely time consuming and costly, being the active process of designing the product to be built. It is here where the contributions of engineering can be found. Important to note is that several independent studies have shown that a very high proportion of the total costs of a new product program are incurred or committed during the engineering supply chain phase. This can add up to many hundreds of millions of dollars for a major manufacturing company. Businesses can gain tremendous benefits by making this phase shorter and more effective. Such benefits are both cost-related, such as reduced development cost, ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now