Supplier base management : the contrast between Germany and the UK

Supplier base management is an important aspect of the management of manufacturing operations, as reducing the number of suppliers – the supplier base – is a key approach in many companies including the US and the UK. By having fewer suppliers, manufacturers have more time to work closely with each remaining supplier, for instance, on improving quality and product innovation. However, is this approach being adopted in Germany as fast as it has been in the UK? This paper describes research which addresses this question and which also investigates how German companies are managing contacts with their suppliers. The study was conducted in two stages. Firstly, a survey of manufacturers in Germany and the UK identified the trends in the supplier base of companies in each country. Secondly, a follow-up telephone survey was carried through with purchasing managers at a random sample of 34 German plants to identify, for example, the advantages experienced by manufacturers, which had reduced their supplier base. The findings show that German manufacturers have not reduced their supplier base by as much as companies in the UK. The second part of the research showed that German manufacturers, which have reduced their supplier base, perceive the benefits of this. However, other companies appear to have failed to take the opportunity to gain advantages from a reduced supplier base

“One Size Can Fit All” – On the Mass Production of Legal Transplants

Law reformers like the World Bank sometimes suggest that optimal legal rules and institutions can be recognized and then be recommended for law reform in every country in the world. Comparative lawyers have long been skeptical of such views. They point out that both laws and social problems are context-specific. What works in one context may fail in another. Instead of “one size fits all,” they suggest tailormade solutions. I challenge this view. Drawing on a comparison with IKEA’s global marketing strategy, I suggest that “one size fits all” can sometimes be not only a successful law reform strategy, but also not as objectionable as critics make it to be. First, whereas, “one size fits all” is deficient a functionalist position, it proves to be surprisingly successful as a formalist conception. Second, critics of legal transplants often insists on what can be called “best law” approach, whereas in law reform, what we sometimes need is law that is just” good enough” law. “Third, legal transplants no longer happen in isolation but rather on a global scale, so that context-specific rules are no longer necessarily local. This is not a plea for formal law, for commodification of laws, and for “one size fits all”. But it is a plea to overcome the romanticism and elitism that may lurk behind the seemingly benign suggestion that law reform must always be tailored to the specific societal context