Design and purchasing departments agree that if your products are nominated by the designers, you've already made the shortlist. Even for widely available products, designers are key decision-makers, right the way through to selecting a final supplier.

Suppliers also need to understand the lead times between a design decision to specify their products and a purchase order for production. 44% of decisions taken by the design function on major design projects today will result in orders for production more than 12 months later.

Where the design function is working on minor modifications to existing designs the impact of their decisions is more immediate. In 73% of cases the changes will impact on production this year.*

* Source: The Role of The Designer - Benchmark Research 2002

Most engineering design activity is predominantly conducted within equipment manufacturers. However, many other manufacturing companies also carry out design work for in-plant applications. Increased outsourcing by larger manufacturers has led to significant employment of design engineers in contract manufacturing and service companies. In fact 33% of engineering designers work outside the original equipment market. The question is, where does product design actually take place and how is it organised? Only Findlay Publications answers this question systematically site-by-site.