Janet L. Hartley

An exploration of supplier selection practices across the supply chain

Abstract 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 companys 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.

Managing the buyer-supplier interface for on-time performance in product development

Abstract Reducing the time required to develop new products has become an important factor of competition in many industries. This paper empirically tests whether management of the buyer-supplier interface affects supplier-related delays and, in turn, if these delays slow the overall project. Product development engineers and engineering managers in 79 assembly industry firms were surveyed to gather the data for this study. Results of analysis of covariance show that working with a supplier that has strong technical capabilities reduces supplier-related delays. However, the benefits of commonly cited interface management techniques such as early supplier involvement, increasing the suppliers responsibility for design, and greater buyer-supplier communication were not confirmed. A significant relationship was found between supplier-related delays and overall project delays. The priority that the buyers top management places on the project and the degree of technical change were also significantly related to overall project delays.

The effect of acceleration techniques on product development time

Bringing new products to the marketplace faster has become a strategic imperative in many markets, especially high technology industries. Much attention has focused on techniques purported to bring products to the market more quickly, but little empirical research has been conducted to validate these techniques. This study tests the relationship between the popular time to market acceleration techniques and product development time in a sample of electronics companies. Our findings suggest that only four of the 12 techniques we studied are significantly related with development time performance as proposed. We found that fast developers had teams that were cross functional, dedicated, included fast time to market as a development goal, and overlapped development activities more so than slow developers. Our regression results were very significant, and accounted for 32% of the variance in development time performance. We concluded, however, given many of techniques were not supported that successful fast cycle development can not be accomplished by using a sporadic combination of factors. Furthermore, we feel additional research is needed to explore the interaction and mediating effects of these techniques upon each other, as well as identify other intermediate processes and external conditions that may also affect product development effectiveness.

Suppliers' contributions to product development: an exploratory study

Many managers are trying to leverage the skills and resources of key component suppliers to develop high-quality new products faster and at a lower cost. In this exploratory study, we surveyed product-development engineers in 79 small- to medium-sized firms to determine if three techniques commonly used to integrate suppliers into product development increase the suppliers perceived contributions to product development in the eyes of its customer. The techniques studied are: (1) timing of a suppliers involvement; (2) suppliers design responsibility; and (3) communication frequency. Of these, only early supplier involvement was significantly related to the perception of an increased contribution by the supplier. In addition, we found that the suppliers contributions to product development had little practical influence on the overall project technical success. The findings suggest that more research is needed to understand how to use suppliers effectively to improve product-development outcomes.

Supplier dependence: impact on supplier's participation and performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend our understanding of the importance of supplier dependence on the buyers firm and its relationship to supplier training and supplier involvement in product development with respect to the suppliers performance.Design/methodology/approach – A random sample of 231 firms provided the data that were analyzed for this study. Using structural equation modeling, a sub‐set of the sample consisting of 166 manufacturing firms was used to test the five hypothesized relationships in the model.Findings – The main findings indicate that supplier dependence is a significant contributor to increasing supplier participation in buyer supported training and increasing supplier involvement in product development. Also, supplier training and supplier involvement are significant contributors to the suppliers operational performance.Research limitations/implications – The model tested in this study used a random sample of US manufacturing firms. Thus, future studies should inc...

An exploration of the adoption of E-auctions in supply management

Increasingly, reverse e-auctions are replacing traditional competitive bidding for sourcing decisions. Using the Internet, reverse e-auctions allow suppliers to compete dynamically, in real-time, for a buyers business. During a reverse e-auction, suppliers submit multiple electronic bids over a fixed time period, often 30 min or less. Typically, the price of the item or service being purchased drops, often dramatically, during the bidding process. E-auctions offer a range of benefits to buying organizations including lower transaction costs, shorter order-cycle times, a large pool of potential suppliers, and competitive purchase prices. Some buyers are concerned that the emphasis on price will overshadow other important performance characteristics. The differences between buying organizations that have adopted reverse e-auctions and those that have not used e-auctions for sourcing decisions are explored in this paper. Data for the study were gathered using a survey of vice presidents and directors of purchasing. Chi-squared analysis shows that there are no differences between reverse e-auction adopters and nonadopters on the level of importance placed on the purchasing objectives of cost management and on supplier collaboration. There is a significant difference considering organization size, where reverse e-auction adopters have higher annual sales than nonadopters. The findings suggest that contrary to expectations, e-auction use and supplier collaboration are not mutually exclusive. Opportunities for future research are discussed.

Quality management practices and their relationship to buyer’s supplier ratings: a study in the Korean automotive industry

Abstract This research explores if quality management practices are different among suppliers whose performance is rated high, medium, or low by a common buying company and identifies which specific practices contribute to the differences. The entire population of first-tier suppliers to a Korean auto assembler was surveyed to measure use of quality management practices. Useable returns were received from 25% of the suppliers surveyed. To measure conformance quality and overall rating, suppliers were categorized into high, medium, and low performing groups based on the buying company’s data. Multivariate analysis of variance was done using general linear model (GLM-MANOVA) to explore differences in the high-, medium-, and low-performing supplier groups based on their use of quality management practices. No statistically significant differences were found when suppliers were categorized based on conformance quality. However, when categorized based on overall rating, the highest rated suppliers were found to emphasize process management and employee satisfaction to a greater degree than the lowest rated suppliers.

A conceptual model of product development cycle time

Abstract Organizations across industries are facing a new competitive challenge: reducing the time required to successfully bring new products to market. Although the managerial literature cites many product development acceleration techniques, little insight is provided as to why and how these techniques are successful. In this article, we extend theory by presenting a conceptual model of product development cycle time that explains the relationships among acceleration techniques, underlying theoretical constructs and development time. The underlying constructs that we propose affect product development time are: (1) project complexity, (2) information processing capability, and (3) motivation. We propose that by understanding the relationships between the popular acceleration techniques, the underlying intermediate processes and product development time, practitioners and academics alike will be better able to develop new techniques as well use existing ones to more effectively speed products to the market.

Supply-Chain Synchronization: Lessons from Hyundai Motor Company

One of the challenges of supply-chain management is developing ways to effectively integrate activities across organizations on the supply chain. Hyundai Motor Company developed mechanisms to coordinate production planning and scheduling activities among supply-chain members. Hyundai Motors production-and-sales-control (P/SC) department uses regularly scheduled cross-functional meetings and scheduling policies to coordinate supply-chain activities. When implementing this process, the P/SC department overcame structural, environmental, and behavioral problems. Although Hyundai management concedes that the process is not perfect, communication among supply-chain members has improved, and the P/SC group has successfully promoted mutual understanding and respect among functional areas. The primary benefit, ultimately, is improved customer satisfaction through better integration of functional activities.

Determinants of new product designers' satisfaction with suppliers' contributions

Abstract A recent trend in product development is the move to outsource more of the design and development work. Specifically, manufacturing firms are looking to component suppliers to increase their roles from that of supplying specified components to that of sharing in or taking major responsibility for component design and development. Effective teaming of product designers and the allied suppliers is likely to become an increasingly important element in the product innovation process. However, this role may be unfamiliar to both product development staff and component supplier staff. This study examines perceptions of new product designers about the component suppliers they used for the design of critical technology in recent new product development projects. The study focuses on how the suppliers were viewed in terms of their technical capability and how it contributed to the project, as well as their capability to work effectively with the product design team. Results indicate that the cooperativeness of the supplier was probably more influential than its technical competence in influencing the willingness of the product designer to bring the component supplier into future development projects.