<p>U doktorskoj disertaciji razmatra se procena i odabir direktnih dobavljača u automobilskoj industriji, proces i razvoj kriterijuma u cilju optimalne selekcije najboljih izvora nabavke. Prikazane su različite metode koje se koriste za ove namene i razvijena je hibridna metoda kako bi se obezbedili najrealniji mogući rezultati procene dobavljača. Istraživanje je vršeno u jednoj kompaniji i korišćeni su podaci iz realnih poslovnih procesa.</p> / <p>In this thesis direct supplier assessment and selection systems development in automotive industry is considered, as well as criteria development in order to provide optimal supply sources. Different methods that are used for those purposes are presented and hybrid method was developed for providing the most realistic results of supplier assessment. The research was held in a real company using real business records.</p>

This research has led to a novel methodology for assessment and quantification of supply risks in the supply chain. The research has built on advanced Knowledge Discovery techniques and has resulted to a software implementation to be able to do so. The methodology developed and presented here resembles the well-known consumer credit scoring methods as it leads to a similar metric, or score, for assessing a supplier’s reliability and risk of conducting business with that supplier. However, the focus is on a wide range of operational metrics rather than just financial, which credit scoring techniques typically focus on. The core of the methodology comprises the application of Knowledge Discovery techniques to extract the likelihood of possible risks from within a range of available datasets. In combination with cross-impact analysis, those datasets are examined for establish the inter-relationships and mutual connections among several factors that are likely contribute to risks associated with particular suppliers. This approach is called conjugation analysis. The resulting parameters become the inputs into a logistic regression which leads to a risk scoring model the outcome of the process is the standardized risk score which is analogous to the well-known consumer risk scoring model, better known as FICO score. The proposed methodology has been applied to an Air Conditioning manufacturing company. Two models have been developed. The first identifies the supply risks based on the data about purchase orders and selected risk factors. With this model the likelihoods of delivery failures, quality failures and cost failures are obtained. The second model built on the first one but also used the actual data about the performance of supplier to identify risks of conducting business with particular suppliers. Its target was to provide quantitative measures of an individual supplier’s risk level. The supplier risk scoring model is tested on the data acquired from the company for its performance analysis. The supplier risk scoring model achieved 86.2% accuracy, while the area under curve (AUC) was 0.863. The AUC curve is much higher than required model’s validity threshold value of 0.5. It represents developed model’s validity and reliability for future data. The numerical studies conducted with real-life datasets have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed methodology and system as well as its future potential for industrial adoption.

This thesis focuses on product design change in the fast fashion market and its impact on supplier companies. Theorizing from the relationship between product design and suppliers within an overarching framework of the supply chain and product design literatures, the research develops what impact product design changes have on supplier companies and how those changes connect to the performance of supplier companies. The multiple case study draws on interview data with 20 participants from a famous high-street fashion retailer and eight of its suppliers. This research validates that product design changes in the fast fashion market have physical and non-physical impacts across supplier company departments, and shows that these impacts connect significantly to the performance of supplier companies. This research contributes to the supply chain and product design literatures by providing an understanding of how product design changes create chain-like-effects, both internally and externally to supplier companies. This can catalyse supplier company strategy, which mitigates product design change to avoid this chain-like-effect. Practically, this thesis offers guidance for retailers and suppliers in creating solutions for the problems that they encounter during the product design change process by revealing the cause and effect relationship of product design changes and supplier companies. The results are currently limited to the fashion industry, and they are yet to be generalised to other buyer-driven commodity chains. Future research should focus on best practices for management to deal with the impact of product design change and in consideration in other industries.

<p>The organisational forms of companies have undergone a transformation from a hierarchal structure towards a network based form. The network form has proven to be the best structure for the current competitive environment. With technological advancements in almost every area it has become almost impossible to produce everything “in-house” and still stay competitive. This has caused an increase in the degree of outsourcing parts of the value chain to suppliers. Therefore, the competition has now moved from between companies to between entire value chains. For a manufacturing company, with a large part of the value chain outsourced to suppliers the task of setting up production in a new market brings forth new questions such as: is it possible to move an entire value chain to a new country? The purpose of this thesis is to explore what factors influence the construction of a strategic network of suppliers of a manufacturing company when entering a new market. The purpose was divided into two research questions: How is the internationalisation process performed in a strategic network situation and what factors influence the construction of a supplier structure in a world based on networks? Three multinational companies with a large part of their value chain outsourced to suppliers were chosen for interviews: Ericsson, Scania and Volvo Truck Corporation.</p><p>The internationalisation process of a manufacturing company is conducted as follows: the first step is the decision to enter a new market followed by a rather quick set up of a production plant. In this initial phase of the establishment, everything or almost everything is imported which is possible due to a global network of suppliers. The last step depends on the strategic objective with the establishment, either importing will continue or a complete organisation will be established in the country. A complete organisation is in this aspect when the company makes large investments inthe market and starts constructing a supplier network, surrounding sales and marketing functions. Factors influencing the internationalising process are: degree of networking, the type and structure of the network surrounding the company; level of knowledge, the accumulated experience of operating in foreign markets; type of market, the characteristics of the market and degree of commitment i.e. will an entire organisation be built up or will importing suffice.</p>

<p>Till följd av marknadens utveckling har beroendet av informationsutbyte och samverkan i olika nätverk ökat. De senaste årtiondenas fokus på informationsutbyte och samarbete ledde till att Supply Chain Management uppstod. Flera forskare har karakteriserat lyckad styrning av samverkan som en kärnkompetens som krävs för att vara konkurrenskraftig. Ägande och kontrollfunktioner som tidigare låg inom samma verksamhet har förändrats och tillämpningen av VMI har uppkommit. VMI innebär att leverantören övertar ansvaret för lagerstyrningen hos kunden. Samarbetet kräver effektivt informationsflöde inom försörjningskedjan och ett bättre informationssystem, vilket ökar möjligheten att förbättra kedjans effektivitet. Vi hade, med den här utgångspunkten i åtanke, för avsikt att besvara problemformuleringen: Hur hanteras information i VMI-styrda relationer inom koncerner? Syften med undersökningen var att undersöka hur lagerstyrning i form av VMI fungerar i en koncern, förklara hur VMI påverkar informationsflöde och relationer i en koncern samt att analysera betydelsen av VMI för informationsutbytet. Efter teoretiska studier genomfördes en undersökning på en koncern där VMI har införts och givit resultat. Resultaten från intervjuerna har sedan analyserats och vi har kommit fram till följande. För att hantera information i VMI-styrda relationer krävs att det finns bra system, en tydlig ansvarsfördelning och förtroende mellan parterna.</p>

The organisational forms of companies have undergone a transformation from a hierarchal structure towards a network based form. The network form has proven to be the best structure for the current competitive environment. With technological advancements in almost every area it has become almost impossible to produce everything “in-house” and still stay competitive. This has caused an increase in the degree of outsourcing parts of the value chain to suppliers. Therefore, the competition has now moved from between companies to between entire value chains. For a manufacturing company, with a large part of the value chain outsourced to suppliers the task of setting up production in a new market brings forth new questions such as: is it possible to move an entire value chain to a new country? The purpose of this thesis is to explore what factors influence the construction of a strategic network of suppliers of a manufacturing company when entering a new market. The purpose was divided into two research questions: How is the internationalisation process performed in a strategic network situation and what factors influence the construction of a supplier structure in a world based on networks? Three multinational companies with a large part of their value chain outsourced to suppliers were chosen for interviews: Ericsson, Scania and Volvo Truck Corporation. The internationalisation process of a manufacturing company is conducted as follows: the first step is the decision to enter a new market followed by a rather quick set up of a production plant. In this initial phase of the establishment, everything or almost everything is imported which is possible due to a global network of suppliers. The last step depends on the strategic objective with the establishment, either importing will continue or a complete organisation will be established in the country. A complete organisation is in this aspect when the company makes large investments inthe market and starts constructing a supplier network, surrounding sales and marketing functions. Factors influencing the internationalising process are: degree of networking, the type and structure of the network surrounding the company; level of knowledge, the accumulated experience of operating in foreign markets; type of market, the characteristics of the market and degree of commitment i.e. will an entire organisation be built up or will importing suffice.

Till följd av marknadens utveckling har beroendet av informationsutbyte och samverkan i olika nätverk ökat. De senaste årtiondenas fokus på informationsutbyte och samarbete ledde till att Supply Chain Management uppstod. Flera forskare har karakteriserat lyckad styrning av samverkan som en kärnkompetens som krävs för att vara konkurrenskraftig. Ägande och kontrollfunktioner som tidigare låg inom samma verksamhet har förändrats och tillämpningen av VMI har uppkommit. VMI innebär att leverantören övertar ansvaret för lagerstyrningen hos kunden. Samarbetet kräver effektivt informationsflöde inom försörjningskedjan och ett bättre informationssystem, vilket ökar möjligheten att förbättra kedjans effektivitet. Vi hade, med den här utgångspunkten i åtanke, för avsikt att besvara problemformuleringen: Hur hanteras information i VMI-styrda relationer inom koncerner? Syften med undersökningen var att undersöka hur lagerstyrning i form av VMI fungerar i en koncern, förklara hur VMI påverkar informationsflöde och relationer i en koncern samt att analysera betydelsen av VMI för informationsutbytet. Efter teoretiska studier genomfördes en undersökning på en koncern där VMI har införts och givit resultat. Resultaten från intervjuerna har sedan analyserats och vi har kommit fram till följande. För att hantera information i VMI-styrda relationer krävs att det finns bra system, en tydlig ansvarsfördelning och förtroende mellan parterna.

Based on current competitive market, supply chain becomes to be more and more important to overall corporate strategy. Finding good suppliers makes much more senses for the companies nowadays as purchasing is one of the basis parts on the upstream of the supply chain. China has been very successful on turning itself into a production powerhouse in just two decades, so how to find and select the convenient suppliers in China is a very important and modern topic. The thesis has been starting with the introduction part, where the importance of outsourcing, Chinese current manufacturing capabilities and some other factors will be introduced. Besides, the purpose of this thesis is to study and analysis the criteria and processes are used by PCH International on the selection of suppliers in China. The authors try to understand how foreign companies find the right Chinese suppliers based on a case studying, which is PCH International, an Irish company. Within the theoretical framework part, the authors discussed the supplier selection criteria firstly, which are very important and necessary to evaluate suppliers’ performances. Then the thesis was provided with an insight into some common theoretical methods, which followed by the supplier selection processes. Total Cost of Ownership, Data Envelopment Analysis and Mathematical Programming are presented in basic term. The part in the theoretical review was informed about the structure of the supplier selection process, starting with the preparation step, followed by prequalification and evaluation steps and resulting in the final selection of the suppliers. In the methodology part, the approach for the research will be presented, it will be divided into four parts, which are choice of topic, choice of method, data collection, research’s validity and reliability. The empirical finding part consists of practical information which was provided by the case company mentioned above through questionnaires and interviews. The values of the evaluation criteria are depend on the respective goals. For data analysis, the theoretical evaluation models, on the other hand, are not used by this case. The company uses their own methods which are presented in the empirical part as well as in the analytical part of this thesis, the reasons will be describe carefully in this chapter. Finally, this thesis ends with a conclusion, which with the answer of the research question.

Study objects: JM, Folkhem and ABB. Purpose: The purpose with this study are to examine how the supplier relations are in the construction branch and compare that result with how the supplier relations are for ABB a production company. Theoretical: The theoretical chapter illustrates important and relevant parts of supplier relations, purchasing and supplier strategies to give good overview. The theoretical review will combine information from different fields to consent with the research problem. Method: A case study has been made on three different companies, one of the companies was active in the production industry the other two were active in the construction industry. Data was mainly collected through semi structured interviews on each of the three companies. Conclusions: The size of the company decided which point of view the company had on purchasing, traditional or modern view. All three companies had a centralized purchasing organization but the construction firms were more decentralized than the production company. The reason was that the construction firms were dependent with more flexibility when every construction project is unique.

Due to the ongoing globalisation and fast changes within the business environment companies are forced to adapt more quickly to customer needs. Therefore, they depend on reliable suppliers which provide them with the necessary goods and services. As a consequence, finding suitable suppliers is of utmost importance for companies. To be able to choose those suppliers companies need to establish criteria on which basis potential suppliers can be evaluate and select afterwards. Against this background, this master thesis researches the supplier selection process from the end manufacturer’s point of view. Hereby, the focus is laid on theoretical supplier evaluation criteria and methods. Due to the lack of investigations in this branch of industry the authors have chosen the sporting goods manufacturing industry within Sweden and Austria as their field of study. They have been supported in their research by the companies the Arctic City Counting House AB, the ATOMIC Austria GmbH, and the HEAD Sports AG which provided them with the essential empirical data. Keeping the above mentioned fact in the back of one’s mind, the authors deduce the following research question: On which basis and how do manufacturers of sports equipment in Sweden and Austria evaluate and select their suppliers? Within the theoretical part the reader of this thesis first of all gets an overview of supplier-buyer relationships and afterwards is informed about the structure of the supplier selection process, starting with the preparation step, followed by prequalification and evaluation steps and resulting in the final selection and the continuous controlling of the suppliers. In addition, common criteria which are necessary to evaluate suppliers are presented. Furthermore, the reader is provided with an insight into general evaluation models whereby four common theoretical methods are explained in detail (AHP, TCO, DCA, and DEA). Out of this theoretical data a conceptual model was created. The empirical part consists of practical information which was provided by the three researched companies mentioned above through questionnaires and interviews. The analysed data concludes that the evaluation criteria which are given in theory are also used in practice. In addition, it was discovered that a further criteria category is applied within the researched companies. The values of the evaluation criteria depend on the goals of the respective company. The theoretical evaluation models on the other hand are not used by the examined sporting goods manufacturers. All of them use their own methods which are presented in the empirical as well as in the analytical part of this thesis. Finally, this thesis ends with a conclusion and with the answer of the research question. Based on this thesis sporting goods manufacturers get an insight in specific supplier evaluation methods and thus gain the chance to learn how other companies within this industry evaluate and select their suppliers.