A SYSTEMATIC SUPPLIER SELECTION PROCEDURE

One of the most important decisions that the procurement department of any manufacturing organization has to make is the selection of an appropriate supplier. This selection will commit the organization and its resources to an outsider for a long time to come, and any mistake in their selection could adversely affect the stability of the organization. As firms reduce their supply base and enter into long term commitments with suppliers, this decision becomes even more important. In this paper a systematic procedure for supplier selection is presented that influences all the relevant factors into the decision, and classifies them into critical factors, objective factors, and subjective factors. It offers a procedure that can be used to evaluate the supplier's performance.