<p>Purchasing is a function that has developed form a more clerical function to a function of strategic importance over the last 20 years. As a result of this development we have observed that many fi rms engage in supplier development activities as a part of their purchasing strategy.</p><p>This thesis consists of four different essays describing various aspects of supplier development and an essay that summarise and connects the four essays as well as giving a broad introduction to the fi eld of research.</p><p>Small and medium sized firms are of special interest when studying supplier or supply chain since they are important links in their supply chains but have fewer resources and therefore limited possibilities to develop by themselves. In the thesis three of the essays describe different ways in which this can be conducted.</p><p>Positive benefits from supplier and supply chain development reported in the thesis are lower costs, shorter lead times, increased competence and an overall improved competitiveness.</p>

Purchasing is a function that has developed form a more clerical function to a function of strategic importance over the last 20 years. As a result of this development we have observed that many fi rms engage in supplier development activities as a part of their purchasing strategy. This thesis consists of four different essays describing various aspects of supplier development and an essay that summarise and connects the four essays as well as giving a broad introduction to the fi eld of research. Small and medium sized firms are of special interest when studying supplier or supply chain since they are important links in their supply chains but have fewer resources and therefore limited possibilities to develop by themselves. In the thesis three of the essays describe different ways in which this can be conducted. Positive benefits from supplier and supply chain development reported in the thesis are lower costs, shorter lead times, increased competence and an overall improved competitiveness.

China is now the main supplier in the generic pharmaceutical and bulk drugs supply market. The low-cost sourcing of raw materials from domestic manufacturers allows Chinese pharmaceutical companies to be competitive. Purchasing becomes strategic importance to the overall business performance through the implementation of concrete purchasing practices. This thesis is mainly to study the capsule purchasing practices in Chinese pharmaceutical companies. Three objectives are proposed in order to achieve the purpose: 1) Describe the capsule purchasing procedures of the companies; 2) Compare and analyse similarities and differences of their purchasing procedures; 3) Give acceptable reasons for these similarities and differences. These objectives are fulfilled on the basis of the developed van Weele’s purchasing procedure model and the factors integrated in purchasing. In this multiple-case study, qualitative approach is utilized in order to describe and interpret the how and why questions. The unstructured face-to face interviews are used. The study finds that the capsule purchasing strategy in Chinese pharmaceutical companies is at the stage of supply management and this may induct the raw material purchasing strategy in Chinese pharmaceutical industry.

This diploma thesis analyzes the current state of company´s purchasing strategy. In the introduction is described the company and its production program, followed by theoretical part of the thesis. The suggestion part deals with the application of the issue to the practical example as well as the calculation of savings as a result of the purchasing strategy change over.

Problem- Sweden is for the moment one of the countries in the world that is most dependent on the automotive industry. Significant companies within this industry at a global level move parts of, or entire operations abroad which increase the competition for Swedish companies. This fact conveys problem for the Swedish SMEs suppliers, as if a supplier only focus on the national market will not match the requirements from the OEMs such as integrated product development and delivery of complete systems on a JIT- basis. Considering these fact, SME suppliers in Sweden need to look for new opportunities on new markets, and create an understanding for how to act accordingly to the new market’s particular business conditions. Purpose- The main purpose of this thesis is to examine business conditions and prerequisites that applies for the buyers and the suppliers in the supply chain in the Mexican auto-motive industry, and further to develop an understanding of the logic of the interaction and integration between them. Derived from the obtained knowledge, a sub-purpose of this thesis is to present recommendations for how Swedish suppliers should enter and act accordingly on the new market. Method- In this thesis we have applied a case study method. We have conducted semi-structured interviews with four of the largest OEMs and five suppliers, all of whom have production in Mexico. We have in addition to the interviews with OEMs and suppliers supported the collected information with one interview with a representative of a trade association within the Mexican automotive industry and one representative from a governmental institution. Results- Our analysis indicates that the conditions for Swedish automotive suppliers to enter the Mexican market are favorable. Factors such as Free Trade Agreements, the positive attitude towards Foreign Direct Investments and skilled but low labor costs all imply for opportunities for Swedish suppliers. Secondly, our analysis indicates that the OEMs are today doing supply base rationalizations. We consider that this is based on the fact that the OEMs are changing their ordering basis from purchasing single parts to complete systems in order to reduce costs and increase the efficiency. Thirdly, our analysis indicates that it is the buyer, no matter on what level in the supply chain it is acting, who forms the strategy of its suppliers. If the buyer has a lean approach, its suppliers are forced to use the same thinking and apply it to their suppliers in order to meet the pressures on costs reductions, product development and JIT delivery. This we entitle as a continues correlation, which permeate in the complete supply chain.

The innovation of technology and product has made uncertain highly of the beginnings of emerging industry. Smart phone industry belongs to emerging industry. The manufacturers in Taiwan of smart phone include HTC, Quanta, Innopac, Asus, and Arimacomm etc. and HTC is the maximum of shipment of smart phone with Microsoft platform. Therefore, it is necessary that we study the purchasing strategies of smart phone industry. The research methodologies applied to this study are literature review, case study and deep interview. It applies purchasing portfolio model to classify components come from different industries, and it is proposed different purchasing strategies. The conclusions of this study reveal as follows: 1. Early Purchasing Involvement (EPI) will help to get external advanced technology resource so that we can improve the competitive advantage of the corporate in emerging industry. 2. Different purchasing strategies and relationship management can be applied to different component industry and suppliers respectively. 3. The performance evaluation, remediation, and selection of suppliers can be adopted into the management cycle in A company, and the standards will depend on industry environment and the resource A company has.

<p>Problem- Sweden is for the moment one of the countries in the world that is most dependent on the automotive industry. Significant companies within this industry at a global level move parts of, or entire operations abroad which increase the competition for Swedish companies. This fact conveys problem for the Swedish SMEs suppliers, as if a supplier only focus on the national market will not match the requirements from the OEMs such as integrated product development and delivery of complete systems on a JIT- basis. Considering these fact, SME suppliers in Sweden need to look for new opportunities on new markets, and create an understanding for how to act accordingly to the new market’s particular business conditions.</p><p>Purpose- The main purpose of this thesis is to examine business conditions and prerequisites that applies for the buyers and the suppliers in the supply chain in the Mexican auto-motive industry, and further to develop an understanding of the logic of the interaction and integration between them. Derived from the obtained knowledge, a sub-purpose of this thesis is to present recommendations for how Swedish suppliers should enter and act accordingly on the new market.</p><p>Method- In this thesis we have applied a case study method. We have conducted semi-structured interviews with four of the largest OEMs and five suppliers, all of whom have production in Mexico. We have in addition to the interviews with OEMs and suppliers supported the collected information with one interview with a representative of a trade association within the Mexican automotive industry and one representative from a governmental institution.</p><p>Results- Our analysis indicates that the conditions for Swedish automotive suppliers to enter the Mexican market are favorable. Factors such as Free Trade Agreements, the positive attitude towards Foreign Direct Investments and skilled but low labor costs all imply for opportunities for Swedish suppliers. Secondly, our analysis indicates that the OEMs are today doing supply base rationalizations. We consider that this is based on the fact that the OEMs are changing their ordering basis from purchasing single parts to complete systems in order to reduce costs and increase the efficiency. Thirdly, our analysis indicates that it is the buyer, no matter on what level in the supply chain it is acting, who forms the strategy of its suppliers. If the buyer has a lean approach, its suppliers are forced to use the same thinking and apply it to their suppliers in order to meet the pressures on costs reductions, product development and JIT delivery. This we entitle as a continues correlation, which permeate in the complete supply chain.</p>

The aim of the thesis is to assess current situation on the market of information and communication technologies, especially software systems influencing logistics within companies: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and then to compare presented description of strategic sourcing with the practice of project management considering the total cost of ownership over the life cycle of supplied ERP.

This master´s thesis deals with the management of the purchasing strategy in the selected business company. This company sells products to final customers. The purpose of the thesis is to monitor purchasing processes mainly focusing on the supplier selection process. Thesis contains suggestion for a systematic selection process of prospective business partners, which is divided into four phases. Proposed suggestion contributes to higher productivity of the company´s purchasing strategy and considerably eliminates risk of high dependence on the sole supplier.

The retail industry is today characterized by downward price pressure, and the increasedcompetition in the industry has led to pressure on profit margins. Purchasing and supply chainmanagement have become areas of increased strategic importance and play a crucial role inthe business performance. This study aims to extend previous literature in these fields byproviding the existing research with an empirical study on how the purchasing strategy canincorporate a total cost perspective of the supply chain.The purpose of this study was to suggest aspects to incorporate in the purchasing strategywith the objective to consider a total cost perspective of the supply chain. This was donethrough conducting an empirical case study at a Swedish middle sized retail company, bycollecting and analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data through interviews, meetingsand internal databases. Challenges that prohibit the case company to apply a total costperspective were identified in the purchasing process and a total cost model was built tovisualize how these affect total costs. Our findings show that there are six challenges thatprohibit the case company to include the total cost perspective in the purchasing process; theinability to reach minimum order quantities (MOQ), production specific requirements, thedifficulty to combine order suggestions on related stock keeping units (SKU), an uneven flowof orders to suppliers, inefficient time supply period and an inability to coordinate transports.Three aspects were identified as root causes for these challenges and suggested to the casecompany to incorporate in their purchasing strategy to enable the management of total costs inthe supply chain. The aspects are flexible time supply periods, internal and externalinformation sharing and coordination of transport. Furthermore, this research also gives anunderstanding of how the formation of the private label assortment fuels the challenges thatprohibit the company to take a total cost perspective.