Strategic supplier selection monitoring and segmentation in the manufacturing industry

Abstract

The level of competition between businesses is at an all time high. newlineGlobalisation liberalisation and privatisation of world economies have all newlinecontributed to this. Manufacturing organisations facing this complex and newlinecompetitive environment have evolved from traditional rigid structures to newlinemore customer oriented and responsive structures. Companies are ready to newlinefulfil customer requirements of high quality and low cost products to ensure newlinesurvival. Strategies used by the companies are focussed on core newlinecompetencies, downsizing and outsourcing, to enable facing competition and newlinesurvival in the market. This has only resulted in increased dependence on newlinesuppliers for providing quality goods at the correct time and competitive newlineprice. Considering the ever-changing and challenging domain of supplier newlinemanagement, it needs new research for introduction of a fresh perspective newlinewith better optimisation methods. So this research work, accepting this newlinechallenge has explored the supplier management domain. newlineFrom the literature review, the following observations are made as the newlinegaps in the literature. A majority of the literature focuses solely on the newlineselection process, with very few addressing the processes that precede or newlinefollow it. Specific criteria and sub-criteria should be formulated depending on newlinethe need. After the selection of suppliers, overall supplier management is not newlineaddressed. Integrated approaches using quality tools like QFD, Taguchi loss newlinefunction, FMEA are rare and require development for strategic selection of newlinesuppliers. In agile supply chain and build to order supply chains; partner newlineselection is a vital concern. However, only a few scholars have focused on newlinethis unique and crucial decision-making area. Tools supporting supplier newlinedevelopment activities should be developed in particular to segment the newlinesupply base and select suppliers for development. newline