Managing Complex Industrial Supplier Relations - an Attractiveness Perspective

    Projektdetaljer

    Beskrivelse

    Outsourcing, mass customization, and joint product development, etc. ? all prominent trends in today?s industrial production outfits. Oftentimes, a significant portion of the value creation for a given product can be ascribed to suppliers and subsuppliers. Not surprisingly, companies and researchers alike have begun to recognize how vital the ability to manage supplier relations really is. When a major portion of an industrial firm?s product value is generated outside its physical and judicial domain, it must be able to exert influence on the long-term strategic orientation and developmental processes of its suppliers. Accordingly, the initial goal of the case-studies and participative research conducted in collaboration with Danfoss Drives was to create a practical understanding of the mechanisms that determine a firm?s ability to manage its supplier relations. The next step was a thorough examination of traditional methods of managing supplier relations. From the outset, however, this project sought out a new way of looking at supplier management, a new perspective that has matured into what is now termed Customer Attractiveness, or CA. Distancing itself from control-based management, this method of supplier management builds on a firm?s attractiveness in relation to its suppliers. In short, it envisions customers attempting to secure the commitment of their suppliers by making themselves ?attractive? partners, thereby attaining a greater position of influence with their suppliers. The Ph.D. project now concluded, the researcher has now turned his full attention to honing the CA concept, which requires further investigation if it is to become operational. To that end, a select group of small companies is being put together as the framework in which to explore the practical applications involved in CA. Two important considerations stand out at this early phase: First, how can customers rate, or measure, their own attractiveness from the point-of-view of their suppliers? And second, how can we measure the outcome of this attractiveness? CIP project group: Chris Ellegaard (Ph.D. Researcher) Professor John Johansen (Primary advisor) Associate Professor Anders Drejer (Associate advisor) External partners: Erhardt Jessen, Peter Madsen and John Unbehaun ? Danfoss Drives Project duration: fall 1999 ? summer 2003
    StatusAfsluttet
    Effektiv start/slut dato31/12/200331/12/2003