A Product - Technology Life Cycle (PTLC) Model for Supply Chain Management (SCM)

The need's wants and desire of industrial customers are fulfilled in a market environment by exchanges between buyers and suppliers. The firm can survive only as long as it customer's needs, wants, and desires at a profit. The medium through which the firm accomplishes this goal is the product. Therefore, the product serves as the foundation upon which many of the firm's functions are established. Purchasing executives are directly involved with the needs and wants of the firms customers. By extension, purchasing executives can profitably use the concept of the product and technology life cycle as a basis for a great many of their planning, managerial and administrative duties. In this study, these concepts were linked to develop, various purchasing strategies to be followed at each stage as a model and which is also tested empirically. This model can be adopted by the purchasing executives to make decisions with greater accuracy, relevance and foresight.