Supplier Management Practice in China: Case Studies on Manufacturing Organizations

One important aspect of supply chain management is supplier management. As many manufacturers are concentrating on their core competences, they need to gain a competitive edge from their supply side through effective supplier management. Based on the results of case studies at six Chinese manufacturers that recently implemented supplier management, this paper finds that although the six examined firms are cautious about supplier selection, they lay little emphasis on supplier performance evaluation and the supply base turns out to be larger as the business grows. However, there is no strong move towards reducing the supplier base at the six study companies, which is partly due to lack of support from supplier performance measuring.