CONCEPTUALIZING THE SUPPLIER-BUYER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT PROCESS

摘要

As manufacturing firms renew their focus on core competencies, they increasingly become dependent upon their suppliers to design and deliver innovative and quality products and services on time and at a competitive cost. Orchestrating the evolution of supplier-buyer relationships presents a major strategic challenge for the procurement manager. The sequential activities and flows associated with the development of two conceptual frameworks for managing the supplier-buyer partnership are developed and discussed. The traditional approach focuses on developing suppliers through instituting a full partnership with poorly performing suppliers whereas the systemic approach focuses on managing the constraining resource within a supplier-buyer system. Suppliers only become an improvement focus if they are constraining system throughput. Both approaches are contrasted within a tabular framework.