Differences between supplier development programme of foreign and local Malaysian automotive suppliers

Research into supplier development has raised issues on the buyer’s relationship with the supplier.A buyer with collaborative relationship would have more interest in supplier development.From the viewpoint of the suppliers, buyers who provided assistance could help the suppliers in developing their capability, a situation that might be particularly relevant in developing and emerging countries. The automotive manufacturers have implemented supplier development programmes for their suppliers, both in developed and developing countries.This raises a question on supplier development programmes in developing countries: How do supplier development programmes differ between a local (Malaysian) supplier and a foreign (non-Malaysian) supplier for Malaysian automakers (buyers)? In this research, interviews were conducted at three supplier organisations, of which one was Australian and two were Malaysian, where all three were suppliers for a Malaysian automaker.This study found that the Malaysian and Australian suppliers differed in supplier categories, customisation versus standardised products and buyer involvement.The study suggests that buyer differences with regard to supplier relationship, supplier commitment, type of product and size of supplier organisation play a role in supplier development

Integrated supplier management system a case study: PARL Bone Mills

Effective supplier management is vital for successful business operation of any business organization. Supplier management is a technique and continuous activity that used to control and make decision about supplier management. Cooperative managers make wise supplier management decision by using supplier management strategy as part of an organized plan. Therefore the research is to implement IS in supplier management at PARL Bone Mills. The Management Information System (MIS) will propose a decision making process for the management at PARL Bone Mills. From the initial findings, the management often faces some problems in taking the supplier record where it is done manually. Therefore, the proposed MIS system will be able to choose a useful supplier who will make available of right product as per the organization’s need. By implementing ICT strategy successfully at PARL Bone Mills, especially MIS system, it is hoped that it can bring some effective and efficient improvement to their supplier management system and this project will also help them to reduce their misuse of time

Supplier development practice: arising the problems of upstream delivery for a food distribution SME in the UK

The paper aims to emphasize on the impacts of the supplier development on reducing the defects in supplier quality for a food distribution small–medium sized enterprise (SME). An empirical study was conducted to measure the performance of the suppliers in three different key performance indicators of the outsourcing and supplier’s performance to arise the existing problems via information exchange, data collection and data analysis. It was found that supplier development through data and information exchange and better communication by any food distribution SME raises the problems more promptly. This can dramatically change the supplier’s behavior to improve the quality of the supplier’s service and products. It is suggested that more research is required to raise other key performance indicators and their related problems and to develop more improvement practices. Six sigma methodologies could be the potential good practices to be focused in future research studies. Supplier performance measurement, which encompasses data exchange and data collection, develops the systematic flow of information, which potentially improves the flow of goods and the whole food supply chain to address the final consumer satisfaction. The research took a novel approach in adopting some transport related key performance indicators of the food supply to the food distribution and retailing sector, which is almost a new approach in food industry

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

Employing dynamic fuzzy membership functions to assess environmental performance in the supplier selection process

The proposed system illustrates that logic fuzzy can be used to aid management in assessing a supplier's environmental performance in the supplier selection process. A user-centred hierarchical system employing scalable fuzzy membership functions implement human priorities in the supplier selection process, with particular focus on a supplier's environmental performance. Traditionally, when evaluating supplier performance, companies have considered criteria such as price, quality, flexibility, etc. These criteria are of varying importance to individual companies pertaining to their own specific objectives. However, with environmental pressures increasing, many companies have begun to give more attention to environmental issues and, in particular, to their suppliers’ environmental performance. The framework presented here was developed to introduce efficiently environmental criteria into the existing supplier selection process and to reflect on its relevant importance to individual companies. The system presented attempts to simulate the human preference given to particular supplier selection criteria with particular focus on environmental issues when considering supplier selection. The system considers environmental data from multiple aspects of a suppliers business, and based on the relevant impact this will have on a Buying Organization, a decision is reached on the suitability of the supplier. This enables a particular supplier's strengths and weaknesses to be considered as well as considering their significance and relevance to the Buying OrganizationPeer reviewe

A single buyer-single supplier bargaining problem with asymmetric information : theoretical approach and software implementation

This paper is focused on the coordination of order and production policy between buyers and suppliers in supply chains. When a buyer and a supplier of an item work independently, the buyer will place orders based on his economic order quantity (EOQ). However, the buyer s EOQ may not lead to an optimal policy for the supplier. It can be shown that a cooperative batching policy can reduce total cost significantly. Should the buyer have the more powerful position to enforce his EOQ on the supplier, then no incentive exists for him to deviate from his EOQ in order to choose a cooperative batching policy. To provide an incentive to order in quantities suitable to the supplier, the supplier could offer a side payment. One critical assumption made throughout in the literature dealing with incentive schemes to influence buyer s ordering policy is that the supplier has complete information regarding buyer s cost structure. However, this assumption is far from realistic. As a consequence, the buyer has no incentive to report truthfully on his cost structure. Moreover there is an incentive to overstate the total relevant cost in order to obtain as high a side payment as possible. This paper provides a bargaining model with asymmetric information about the buyer s cost structure assuming that the buyer has the bargaining power to enforce his EOQ on the supplier in case of a break-down in negotiations. An algorithm for the determination of an optimal set of contracts which are specifically designed for different cost structures of the buyer, assumed by the supplier, will be presented. This algorithm was implemented in a software application, that supports the supplier in determining the optimal set of contracts

Japanese Supplier Relations: A Comparative Perspective

This paper describes major characteristics of Japanese supplier relations in a comparative perspective. The supplier relations in Japan, particularly automobile industry, are examined in comparison with those in the United States. The primary purpose of the study is to characterize significant features of Japanese supplier relations and to provide economic rationale for those relationships. In addition, comparing supplier relations in Japan and the U.S., convergence in the nature of those are discussed. Significant features of Japanese supplier relations are characterized: long-term relationships and commitments; forced competition among few suppliers; transaction-specific investments in plant, equipment, and human capital; significant involvement of suppliers in product development with sharing of information. Supplier relations in the U.S. are changing and moving close to the Japanese counterpart. There has been a limited, yet noticeable, convergence in the nature of U.S. and Japanese supplier relations.Long-term relationships, Procurement, Supplier relations, Transaction-specific investments

Supplier selection requires full transparency

In this paper, we highlight a number of problems arising with a commonly used supplier selection method: the weighted factor score method. We discuss the behavior of this method with respect to weighting, scaling issues, and relative scoring. Assuming that there is no convex dominance, we formally prove that with the same supplier selection method, we can make any supplier win by judiciously choosing the right parameters of the awarding mechanism. This means that any supplier can win if certain parameters are not published in a request for a proposal. This result applies to both absolute and relative scoring methods. Also, we show that the buyer should fully disclose all details of the awarding mechanism to suppliers in order to get better bids. The practical implications of our results are far reaching for (public) procurement: full transparency and disclosure of all details of weights and awarding schemes is not only required to avoid subjectivity in supplier selection, but it also leads to better bids from suppliers

THE IMPACT OF STRATEGIC PURCHASING TO THE SUPPLIER INVOLVEMENT THROUGH COMMUNICATION, COORDINATION AND COLLABORATION IN SMAAL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

In recent times, the theory of purchasing and supply operations has been widely studied under a variety of labels and for a number of reasons. Realizing competitive advantage from organizational alignment and relation to materials supply is for a form of backward integration. In the process, the manufacturing organization obeys demands from distributors; purchasing is in turn re-structured and managed to achieve improved customer value for manufacturing; thereafter, the process addresses the suppliers to the organization (external integration) typically involving supplier rationalization and the introduction of supplier evaluation systems. Based on previous research, there was finding that strategic purchasing has been impact to communication, coordination and collaboration with supplier which is increase supplier involvement. According to a survey 100 respondent which was conducted by means questionnaires and 94 completed questionnaires were returned. Six responses were considered incomplete and had to be discarded, and this left 86 valid responses. This study result are strategic purchasing has a positive significant effect to communication is 0.314; positive significant effect to coordination is 0.336; and positive significant effect collaboration is 0.365. Communication and Collaboration directly will bring significant contribution to supplier involvement, but coordination is not directly. Key words: Strategic purchasing, communication, collaboration, coordination, supplier involvement