Challenges faced in adopting a supplier performance measurement framework to support the NPD process

Suppliers are increasingly being assessed on their ability to deliver and support a customer´s new product development (NPD) process. In addition, competitive scenarios are based on a network and chain of suppliers. Supplier performance measurement frameworks and metrics need to be flexible enough to work with an integrated network view in mind and hence support suppliers with separate distinct roles. This paper highlights the challenges faced in constructing such a framework, where multiple roles exist over multiple tiers of a network. The case-study development of a supplier performance framework and associated metrics for a large multinational in the electronics industry is used illustrate the challenges. One key challenge identified is use of a performance measure framework that supports a diverse network of organizations. The use of operational, tactical and strategic metrics is proposed; strategic metrics for the network focus and operational metrics for an individual supplier. The operational metrics can be varied depending on the supplier role.