همکاری موثر بین تامین کنندگان اصلی و فرعی

Many sub-suppliers are interested in closer integration with main suppliers for product development. However, main suppliers have much work that needs to be coordinated, and close integration with suppliers is used only when it is required, and when additional value is created through integration. The main objective of this paper, is therefore, to discuss different supplier roles and increase the understanding of how suppliers can be integrated with the main supplier. The result is based on a case study with one main supplier and nine of its sub-suppliers, where the main supplier develops, assembles, and delivers a complete, complex product to the customer, and the sub-suppliers develop and manufacture sub-systems for the main supplier. The results give new insights into what the sub-suppliers could do in order to improve integration with the main supplier.

Many main suppliers are streamlining their operations, moving towards more external contracting of their key activities. Sub-suppliers (SMEs) become more important as they develop and produce an increasing amount of the components for the end product. As a result, the main supplier becomes reliant upon the sub-suppliers’ knowledge within certain areas. It is, therefore, obvious that the customer/supplier interface now plays a key role in the design and development of new products [1]. This results in the sub-suppliers influencing the products’ price, performance, and quality to an ever-increasing degree. The interface between main and sub-suppliers is shown in Fig. 1. Main suppliers use sub-suppliers for flexibility, innovation, and resource purposes. The point in time at which the sub-suppliers are brought into the process is critical. The ability to quickly put together a team with distributed actors is an important factor for success. The efficiency of collaboration between distributed actors will be easier to monitor by concentrating on upstream/downstream activities and on coordinating and integrating the actors. Little attention is paid to how to integrate suppliers in integrated product development (IPD) [2] including the creation of a distributed production system, which will be further discussed in this paper. This paper will first give a theoretical background to the integration of suppliers, which is then related to a case study that has been carried out at one main supplier in the mechanical industry and nine of its sub-suppliers. An interface model has been developed in order to interpret and discuss the results from the case study.

The objective of this paper was to increase the understanding of how sub-suppliers can be integrated with the main supplier. Different aspects of the integration between main and sub-suppliers have been presented and discussed in the paper and the most relevant conclusions are presented below. From the sub-suppliers’ perspective, it is important to have an insight into the different interfaces, and to know when to apply integration. There must be an obvious benefit for the main supplier to integrate sub-suppliers. It is important to have an opinion on which roles that are most suitable for the sub-suppliers during different stages in the product development project and it is also important to clearly describe the level of involvement with the main supplier. If the sub-suppliers are to be integrated, it is not enough simply to have detailed knowledge of the sub-system; the sub-supplier must have contextual knowledge of how the complete system operates. The sub-supplier’s ability to work with preliminary specifications, to manage overlapping and dependent tasks, and to support the main supplier with essential information is crucial for integration. It is also essential that a common working procedure is established; with a common task definition, collective goal setting, and mutual communication for selecting interfaces and scope of supply. The concept of integration is easier to apply if the distance between main and sub-suppliers is short. The interfaces between sub-systems could be better selected if sub-suppliers were integrated earlier in some cases, and if the main supplier took the sub-supplier’s knowledge into account in a more bottom-up manner. It is important for the sub-supplier to have a project leader with a broad overview of the whole, in order to integrate people from different specialties. Standard processes, interfaces, and routines could improve the efficiency of collaboration. However, it should also be noted that these conclusions are based on just one case study. As such, the knowledge in part should be considered dependent on the system and, therefore, valid for other similar systems.