Mobile phone has become an indispensable part of human being’s daily lives. Triggered by the first launch of iPhone since 2007, the mobile phone industry has prospered and attracted many manufactures from other electronic industries. With past strong experience in PC related ODM manufacture experience, Taiwan ODM manufacturers gain great competence to acquire large and constant ODM/EMS orders from leading mobile phone vendors. They utilize ODM vendors’ capabilities to provide emerging market with cost competitive products and wider product portfolio. Therefore, an effective ODM vendor selection model is critical to ensure the success of product launch and the quality level. The goal of this research paper is to establish a decision model for mobile phone ODM vendor selection. An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model was selected to design an appropriate ODM vendor performance evaluation model which allows the mobile phone branding company to choose the best suitable ODM vendor. An expert panel of 5 experienced project managers helped on the model development and scoring process for 3 selected vendors. The results showed Vendor 3 has the best performance contributed by its most outstanding performance in Production Quality Criterion. R&D Capability is the most influential factor toward the decision at Focus Area level and Pricing Criterion impacts the Focus Area most. Although this research paper had demo the effectiveness to use AHP model for ODM vendor selection, the simplified hierarchy structure and selection of expert panel composition might affect the accuracy and applicability of this methodology. A more detailed hierarchy structure and comprehensive factor elements along with a more diverse expert panel composition shall be used to examine the effectiveness of this methodology as future research
