Abstract: It has been found that selecting proper participator to involve effectively in product development process at right time and to right extent is vital to the success of product collaborative development. The characteristics of product structure and the classification of resources and suppliers, and the relation between them are regarded as the main factors affecting the time and degree of supplier involvement. The definition of the degree of product innovation, the classification of components and involving suppliers are proposed. In order to find the rela-tion between different types of components and involving sup-pliers, a mapping model and a design algorithm that describe the zigzag mapping process between product domain, decision domain and supplier domain are given. Considering the re-quirements of material supply chain and new product develop-ment, an index model including satisfaction, flexibility, venture and confidence indices for measuring the extent to which both the customer requirements and supplier capabilities match or mismatch is presented. The supplier’s evaluation process and algorithm are proposed subsequently. Finally, an example of supplier selection in new carriage development is given.

Key words: Collaborative development, Design structure matrix, Product definition, Supplier evaluation