Supplier evaluation in the context of circular economy: A forward step for resilient business and environment concern

Resource depletion is a concern for the global economy; many think that available resources on the planet will not be able to cater to an ever-growing population. Thus, economies are trying to become circular, leaving behind the linear tradition linear approach. In the circular economy (CE), physical resources and energy are made to loop back into the supply chain (SC) for a more extended period. Proper selection of suppliers is an essential criterion towards proper execution of the CE principle in SC. In this research, we have constructed a framework for evaluating the supplier concerning the CE implementation. Further, this research identifies the criterion and sub-criterion, which are pertinent for evaluating the supplier in CE context. Fuzzy-based ‘Criteria Importance Through Inter-Criteria Correlation (CRITIC)’ method is justifiably applied to determine the aggregated weights of the criteria. Finally, ‘Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)’ method is used to determine the suppliers' ranking in the Indian automobile industry. Six criteria and 24 sub-criteria are obtained as per recent literature and then inputs from experts. ‘Environment’ criterion came out as the most favourable criterion with a subjective weight of 0.230. The current research is one of the first such attempts to provide criteria for supplier selection in a CE environment. The developed framework would help organisations in implementing CE-based supplier selection. The identified criteria and sub-criteria would provide organisations with means to evaluate suppliers and help suppliers develop an effective and efficient CE based on the SC.     

Participation of suppliers in greening supply chains: An empirical analysis of German automotive suppliers

The public increasingly holds companies accountable for environmental misbehavior in their supply chains. To offset that risk corporations start initiatives to green their supply chains. Yet suppliers often fail to properly participate in these initiatives. This paper presents a conceptual framework to explain supplier participation in green initiatives, by investigating customer requirements, supplier readiness, relational norms and customer investment as possible drivers. The framework and hypotheses were tested using survey data of 54 German automotive suppliers. Partial least squares methodology was deployed for hypothesis testing. The study found supplier readiness and customer requirements to be significant drivers in supplier participation. Relational norms and customer investment did not per se yield significant importance for explaining supplier participation, but when taking into account firm size, the data suggests that cooperative relation norms and customer investment work as an additional driver in green supply chain management for larger suppliers. This research is one of the few studies that explore drivers for supply chain participation at the supplier's level.     

政府采购的可持续供应商评价准则研究

与供应商建立战略合作关系、提高可持续发展能力是加强政府采购绩效和稳定性的有效手段,应当建立客观、科学的供应商评价和监管机制。结合失效模式、后果分析模型与区间二元语义混合加权距离测度对可持续供应商的评价准则进行风险分析和排序,为评价政府采购的供应商可持续能力提供判断依据。同时指出,政府采购流程中应当动态管理专家库和供应商信息库,制定合适的专家筛选条件,严格把控供应商资格审查,并利用科学方法确定评价准则内容和供应商选择对象。     

Antecedents to supplier integration in the automotive industry: A multiple-case study of foreign subsidiaries in China

Supplier integration has become an important concept for improving supply chain performance. The aim of this paper is to identify factors that facilitate and inhibit supplier integration in the context of the Chinese automotive industry. An inductive approach based on grounded theory was chosen as the research methodology, where data was collected through 30 detailed case interviews with subsidiaries of foreign automotive companies operating in China. The results indicate that buyer-side leadership is an important antecedent for building motivation, trust, and commitment among suppliers and for shaping their mindsets. This, in turn, facilitates strategic alignment and enables suppliers to build collaborative capabilities, which are finally shown to be a key enabler for successful supplier integration.     

Global supplier selection using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy goal programming

Global supplier selection is a multi-goal multi-criteria problem which needs to consider both qualitative and quantitative factors. Which suppliers are the best and how much should be purchased from the selected suppliers is an important purchasing issue for manufacturers. Traditionally, decision makers can determine the best supplier from evaluating few suppliers with qualitative supplier selection criteria by using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), but evaluate dozens of global suppliers simultaneously or determine the order quantity from them will be complex and difficult. Meanwhile, decision makers can determine the order quantity form the suitable suppliers by using fuzzy goal programming (FGP); however, it is not easy to decide weights for each goal of global supplier selection with different supply chain strategies. This study integrated the FAHP and FGP (FAHP-FGP) method to be a new approach for global supplier selection in considering the manufacturer’s supply chain strategies. With FAHP-FGP method, the manufacturer can consistently integrate multi-manager’ opinions in determining weights of each goal and obtain the order quantities for suitable suppliers based on manufacturer’s strategies. To demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method, a real-world case of a digital consumer products manufacturer is presented.     

The influence of reputation on supplier selection: An empirical study of the European automotive industry

Using an original database, integrated with information by the web, we propose an ex-post analysis on the main factors influencing the selection process of tier 1 suppliers in the automotive industry. There is plenty of literature on how buyers should select their suppliers, but the literature on how they really do so is scarce. We contribute analysing an original database collecting purchasing contracts information within the automotive components market in Europe. We investigate, through different econometric approaches the influence of traditional supplier selection criteria in combination with different reputation factors. Our findings suggest that reputation plays a crucial role more than classical criteria; in particular, suppliers, which serve a diversified customer portfolio or with strong exposure to premium brand customers have better chances to gain additional orders and broaden their customer base even more. The latter means that OEMs have to increase their reputation in order to be more attractive for suppliers.     

基于供应链管理的供应商选择问题初探

在现阶段的发展过程中,现代化发展已经成为企业未来发展的基本方向。作为企业实现现代化发展的关键环节,供应链的管理工作在整个企业运行过程中起到了举足轻重的作用。伴随着供应链管理的发展,供应商的选择问题越来越多,选择要点和选择内容不断丰富,并逐渐发展成为企业采购过程中所有采购员共同面对的问题。根据企业的发展现状和运营情况,选择更合适更合理的采购方案和供货商,并遵循行业准则来制定企业采购规则。     

铁路车辆制造企业供应商管理存在问题的原因分析及解决建议

通过对铁路车辆制造企业目前供应商管理现状和存在的问题进行分析,研究铁路车辆制造企业供应链管理的模式,与优秀供应商建立长期稳定的相互支持、风险共担、同步发展的战略合作伙伴关系,实现双赢的企业管理模式。通过对供应商管理观念和方式的转变,能够有力推动企业内、外部资源互补与优化利用,实现供应链节点企业的财务状况、质量、产量、交货期、用户满意度和业绩的改善和提高,提升供应链核心竞争力,实现合作多赢的目标。     

Do the barriers of multi-tier sustainable supply chain interact? A multi-sector examination using resource-based theory and resource-dependence theory

In a geographically dispersed multi-tiered supply chain, managing sustainable practices throughout the entire upstream network is increasingly challenging for the lead firm. But often, it is the lead firm that is held responsible for the lack of non-sustainable practices by any of its suppliers in the network. This can potentially damage the reputation of the lead firm. Moreover, complex inter-relationship among multi-tier sustainable supply chain management (MSSCM) barriers tends to constrain the cascading of sustainability. Consequently, the strategies in overcoming the MSSCM barriers show limited impact. Thus, exploring the mutual interaction among MSSCM barriers is crucial as removing one barrier can intensify or diminish the effect of another barrier. This research unpacks the intra-firm, inter-firm, and contingency barriers for multi-tiered supplier network. A grey-based multi-criterion decision-making approach is adopted in establishing mutual relationships among MSSCM barriers. In addition, a combined resource-based theory and resource-dependence theory supports the theoretical anchoring. The MSSCM barriers are studied for supply networks which involve three lead firms, five tier-one suppliers, and ten lower-tier suppliers selected from automobile, beverage, and home appliances industries. The research provides a granularity of the MSSCM barriers’ by analysing the meaningful relationship at the individual tier-firm level and aggregated level.     

大客户兼供应商与企业融资约束

基于2009—2021年我国沪深A股上市公司前五大客户与供应商的信息数据，探究大客户兼是主要供应商这一特殊情形对企业融资约束的影响及其作用机制。研究发现，大客户兼供应商的存在会加剧企业融资约束，且这一效应对于非国有控股和非制造业企业以及当该类客户销售占比低于采购占比和与企业位于同一行业时更为显著。机制检验结果表明，关联交易是大客户兼供应商加剧企业融资约束的作用渠道，而非财务造假行为和真实经营模式带来的弱势市场地位和高经营效率，表明大客户兼主要供应商在我国情境下是一种供应链风险信号，其背后往往隐藏着关联交易，这不仅拓展了学术界和实务界对企业大客户与供应商的认知，也从供应链视角为我国企业“融资难、融资贵”提供了新的解释。     

An exploration of supplier selection practices across the supply chain

The US auto industry has undergone tremendous changes during the past decade. Companies have increased their level of out-sourcing and are relying more heavily on their supply chain as a source of their competitive advantage. Thus, determining which suppliers to include in the supplier chain has become a key strategic consideration. However, previous studies of supplier selection have not considered a company's position in the supply chain. In this paper, we compare supplier-selection practices based on a survey of companies at different levels in the auto industry. Our findings rebut the common thinking that indirect suppliers who are more involved in commodity purchasing emphasize initial price and de-emphasize relational considerations. We learned that selecting suppliers based on the potential for a cooperative, long-term relationship is just as important to direct and indirect suppliers as it is to the auto assemblers. We also learned that price is one of the least important selection items, regardless of position on the supply chain. Further, contrary to the existing understanding that quality and delivery are separate constructs, they formed a single construct in our study. To summarize the empirical results, no differences among the auto assemblers, direct suppliers, and indirect suppliers were found for the importance placed on consistency (quality and delivery), reliability, relationship, flexibility, price, and service. Statistically significant differences were found between the auto assemblers and indirect suppliers on the importance placed on technological capability and financial issues.     

Automotive supplier parks: An imperative for build-to-order?

Build-to-order (BTO) has been hailed as a production strategy that fits the demands of the 21st century where a considerable challenge for the industry is how to achieve flexibility from extended supply chains that span the globe and retain elements of make-to-forecast. A study of 8 European manufacturers examines whether supplier parks are an imperative for BTO using a conceptual framework developed from the literature. The findings question the idea that simply locating suppliers in close proximity to original equipment manufacturer assembly plants reduces delivery lead time and inventory. Hence, not all types of supplier parks are an imperative for BTO, where the cases reveal a wide variety of types ranging in scale and proximity. The originality of the paper is a unique study which redefines both automotive supplier park terminology and the relationships with BTO. It questions received wisdom and offers practical measures for industry.     

Joint decision of procurement lot-size,supplier selection,and carrier selection

The joint decision making of procurement lot-size, supplier selection, and carrier selection has potential to reduce buyer's purchasing expenditures. Furthermore, the total logistics cost can also come down through economies of scale in the purchasing and transportation costs, and reduction in supply chain disruptions such as rejections and late deliveries. We study a procurement setting in which a buyer needs to purchase a single product from a set of suppliers over finite discrete time periods to satisfy service level requirements. The suppliers offer all-unit quantity discounts, and transportation cost depends on carrier capacity as well as geographical location of suppliers. This paper proposes an integer linear programming model to simultaneously determine the timings of procurement, lot-sizes, suppliers and carriers to be chosen so as to incur the least total cost over the planning horizon. A numerical example is included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in establishing tradeoffs among purchasing cost, transaction cost, and inventory holding cost. Sensitivity analysis has been carried out to understand the effects of the model parameters on the purchasing decisions and total cost. Managerial insights of this study serve as a reference for decision makers to develop effective procurement strategies.     

Supplier empowerment: Mediating situational factors and perceived performance

The understanding of the behavioral and cognitive factors that affect organizations' performance has attracted increasing attention of scholars and practitioners. Based on the literature of psychological empowerment at the individual and the team levels, this study develops the concept of supplier empowerment in the context of purchasing and supply management. Further, this study proposes a research model that explores the role of supplier empowerment as a cognitive concept in mediating the relationship between situational factors (a supplier's process modularity and the mutual trust with its customers/buyers) and the supplier's perceived performance in its operations and customer service. This model is tested with 208 responses from automotive industry suppliers. The findings highlight the importance of empowered suppliers in decreasing inventory levels and increasing order fulfillment performance.     

Improving resilience of the healthcare supply chain in a pandemic: Evidence from Europe during the COVID-19 crisis

The severe scarcity of critical medical supplies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to considerable procurement challenges in the healthcare supply chain (HCSC). As ensuring the availability of such supplies during disruptions is critical, the debate on how to increase supply chain resilience in healthcare has gained new momentum. We present empirical evidence from a multi-tier case study spanning nine European medical supplies manufacturers and hospital groups. Based on the resource dependence theory, we investigated procurement-related strategies to improve medical supplies availability. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 39 procurement and supply chain management experts and derived seven propositions on buffering and bridging approaches for managing evolving resource dependencies and thereby strengthening supply chain resilience in a pandemic. Overall, we confirm the resource dependence theory's applicability for explaining companies' mitigation measures in a pandemic disruption. We find that bridging measures within the healthcare supply base, such as offering procurement support for suppliers or leveraging long-term buyer-supplier relationships, are more effective for securing medical supplies than buffering measures. Complementing bridging with buffering, such as extended upstream procurement or resource sharing among hospitals, can lead to superior risk mitigation as capacities of the present supplier base may not suffice. Furthermore, we extend the resource dependence theory by showing that the severity of disruptions caused by a pandemic triggers new forms of buffering external to the HCSC. Both traditional and new buffering measures establish novel flows of medical supplies in the HCSC that can enable higher supply security in a pandemic.     

浅议制造型企业如何选择供应商

在供应链管理环境下,供应商的选择对制造型企业是非常重要的。为了让制造型企业的供应商选择工作更加高效且成本更低,文章在已有供应商选择理论的基础上,针对制造型企业,首先分析了供应商的分类,然后建立了一个制造型企业选择供应商的指标体系,给出了制造型企业选择供应商的基本流程。     

基于供应链的电厂煤炭采购订货优化研究

企业之间的竞争已经转变为供应链之间的竞争,而采购工作是供应链的源头,采购成本的节约是供应链成本控制的重要环节。文中针对燃料煤供需紧张问题,把供应链管理的思想引入电厂的采购订货中,采用综合考虑供应链上的供方(煤炭供应商)及需方(电厂)的一体化采购策略,以期为供需双方建立战略合作伙伴关系。通过建立供需双方的综合采购数学模型,为电厂提供了最佳的订货量,实现供应链整体利益最大化,最后利用算例验证模型的有效性。     

Supplier selection in agile supply chains: An information-processing model and an illustration

Agile supply chains need to be highly flexible in order to reconfigure quickly in response to changes in their environment. An effective supplier selection process is essential for this. This paper develops a model that helps overcome the information-processing difficulties inherent in screening a large number of potential suppliers in the early stages of the selection process. Based on radial basis function artificial neural network (RBF-ANN), the model enables potential suppliers to be assessed against multiple criteria using both quantitative and qualitative measures. Its efficacy is illustrated using empirical data from the Chinese electrical appliance and equipment manufacturing industries.     

An empirical analysis of green supply chain management in the German automotive industry

The purpose of this paper is the empirical investigation of the status quo of green supply chain management in the German automotive industry from a practitioner's point of view. Several aspects of green supply chain management, such as the point of time of implementation, the driving forces, the relevance of intended goals and their particular realization and the adoption of eco‐programs with suppliers and customers as well as internal and external barriers are analyzed. Furthermore, the link to different performance criteria is tested by inductive statistics in order to show the potential of green supply chain management for competitiveness. For this study, managers from the automotive supply industry in Germany were asked about their estimations in this regard. The main conclusion is that managers express the need for green supply chain management on the one hand but also see corresponding problems in terms of required resources on the other hand. Furthermore, the analyses show that green supply chain management leads to higher performance in terms of several performance criteria. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Hybrid buyer–supplier relationships in global electronic markets

Research on the mechanisms for conducting business with suppliers has traditionally centred on the nature of arm’s length and embedded relational models. While such models provide a basis for understanding market and closely integrated approaches to supply chain management it has been recognised that a variety of hybrid models occur in practice. This paper identifies and examines a hybrid model of buyer–supplier relationships that forms part of a portfolio of relationships managed by a large Australian organisation. The hybrid model takes a local community perspective within a market based mechanism. The characteristics of the hybrid model are underpinned by the motivation to maintain goodwill in the supplier community and employ a global competitive electronic marketplace for procurement. Strategies to manage local suppliers and consideration of their role and standing in the local community are important factors that large organisations need to incorporate in hybrid procurement arrangements.