Stop Letting New Products Disrupt Your Supply Chain. Start Planning Them Right.

A clear, reliable process for handling new designs, supplier changes, and requalifications — so NPI parts never become fire drills again.

Get started
See resources

A Complete Playbook for Planning New Product Introduction Parts

This guide shows you how to structure, track, and manage NPI materials in your ERP — from defining what “NPI” really means to setting lead times, approving suppliers, and keeping sourcing aligned with engineering and production.

What you’ll get:

  • The full NPI planning process
  • How to classify “new” parts correctly
  • How to choose strategic NPI lead times
  • A visual workflow and decision tree
  • Guidance for setting accurate parameters in your ERP
  • How Nvexus can track NPI demand, lead times, and planning parameter accuracy

Download the Guide

See how top supply-chain teams organize NPI work, assign planning parameters, and keep new designs on schedule.

Visual timeline of an Integrated Master Schedule showing how Design Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, and Supply Chain NPI activities overlap—covering design kickoff, tooling, RFQs, long lead-time components, qualification steps, planning parameter updates, and the transition into the Buy/Build schedule once suppliers are approved.

A Smarter Way to Bring New Parts Into Your Supply Chain

New Product Introduction can bring exciting designs — and painful surprises.

A new part can trigger RFQs, tooling needs, quality checks, supplier qualification, and new demand that your ERP wasn’t ready for.

This guide helps you build a clean, repeatable system for managing all of it, so NPI parts move smoothly from design to production.

What You’ll Learn

What Makes a Part an NPI?

When a new item enters your system, everything depends on setting it up the right way.

NPI parts come with extra work that standard production items don’t. They often require supplier qualification, tooling, testing, and cross-functional coordination before they ever reach the shop floor.

An effective NPI process makes sure these parts are identified early and routed through the right steps — long before production demand appears. That includes core activities such as:

  • Design kickoffs and early readiness reviews
  • Planning parameter setup in ERP
  • RFQs and supplier identification
  • Tooling design, tooling buys, and sample POs
  • Qualification and testing (FAI / PPAP)
  • Approved supplier list updates

When these steps are defined and visible, teams can avoid delays, reduce last-minute scrambling, and ensure every new or reactivated part enters the system clean, complete, and ready for planning and sourcing work.

Why a Clear NPI Process Is Critical

If new parts don’t follow a structured process, delays spread across the entire supply chain.

Without a clear NPI workflow, sourcing may learn about new designs too late, engineering may release drawings without suppliers in place, and planners may lack accurate parameters to drive demand.

This guide shows how a strong NPI process creates:

  • Early visibility for sourcing
  • Better alignment with engineering
  • Accurate planning parameters in ERP
  • Fewer shortages and fewer surprises

Three Part Types Create 90% of NPI Planning Challenges

Knowing which type you’re dealing with makes it easier to assign the right planning parameters.

Some parts are brand-new designs. Others are old items that suddenly return. And some parts lose their only qualified supplier overnight.

This guide explains the practical differences among:

  • New designs with no supplier yet
  • Old parts with new demand after years of inactivity
  • Current parts with no approved supplier due to quality or disruption

For each type, the guide shows how to assign the correct buyer, planner, and NPI lead time so ERP can drive the right actions.

Choosing Strategic NPI Lead Times

Longer lead times aren’t about waiting — they’re about starting the work earlier.

NPI parts use extended lead times to create enough time for supplier qualification, testing, tooling, and approval.

The guide explains how companies choose these values on purpose — not at random — using real data.

Using the Nvexus Lead Time Category Analysis, teams can compare lead times across commodities and identify the longest profiles. This ensures the chosen NPI lead time covers 99% of real lead-time behavior, preventing shortcuts and missed steps.

From Design to Production: The NPI Workflow

A good NPI process brings all teams together — and keeps the part moving.

NPI work crosses multiple teams, and without a clear workflow, projects quickly get stuck. This section shows a full NPI process including:

  • Design readiness
  • Early sourcing engagement
  • RFQs, supplier selection, tooling
  • Sample POs and part qualification
  • Parameter setup in ERP
  • Handoff to production buyers

The guide also includes a simple decision tree to show when a part should stay in NPI status — and when it’s ready for production planning.

How Nvexus Automates NPI Tracking & Data Accuracy

Nvexus connects planning, sourcing, engineering, and quality through clean data and daily visibility.

Even with a strong NPI process, keeping parts organized is hard. Nvexus helps by automating the work that teams struggle to maintain manually:

  • Demand Audit — See all NPI demand in one place with time-phased charts and filters for buyer, planner, or part number.
  • Planning Parameter Audit — Checks every NPI setup field for accuracy and tracks weekly trends so nothing slips through
  • Bill of Material Audit — Verifies BOM completeness and correctness to avoid surprises when new parts reach production.
  • Lead Time Category Analysis — Analyzes make/buy lead times by month and commodity to choose an NPI lead time that covers 99% of parts.
  • Open PO Tracking — Monitors all open POs, including past-due or premature ones, with filters for NPI buyers and planners.

Together, these tools turn NPI into a structured, trackable, and repeatable process — instead of manual guesswork.

FAQs

An NPI part is a new or reactivated item that needs supplier qualification before it can be used in production.

To give teams enough time to qualify suppliers, complete tests, and prevent rushed orders.

Yes. If a part hasn’t been purchased in a long time or loses its approved supplier, it returns to the NPI process.

ERP signals the need to release requisitions earlier so sourcing can start qualification work on time.

Nvexus shows NPI demand, checks planning parameters, audits BOM accuracy, analyzes lead times, and monitors open POs.

Engineering, Sourcing, Planning, Quality, and sometimes Manufacturing Engineering for tooling and readiness.