Towards a Learning Organization Perspective to Supplier Selection for Global Supply Chain Management: an Integrated Framework

Abstract

In this paper the authors present a framework for supplier evaluation in a
global environment. Global supply chains may involve very different
relationships, from strategic/long term to tactical/short term relationships in which
data necessary for evaluation are often unavailable, ambiguous, and difficult to
measure. Given the wide range of purchasing situations and the different types of
supply relationships it does not seem practicable neither to identify a single and
optimal solution to the problem of defining a suitable evaluation method, nor to
reduce evaluation to a simple one-stage data aggregation process. To cope with
such complexity, companies can adopt a learning organization approach to
supplier selection, here intended as a long term, strategic and ongoing process
through which companies can learn how to better manage their global supply
chain and effectively select their suppliers on a worldwide scale. By assuming
the learning organization perspective and through the integration of
methodologies drawn from knowledge engineering and soft computing, the
proposed framework is intended to support supply chain managers in supplier
selection both in the problem setting and in problem solving stage. It represents a
systematic approach for supplier assessment using data related to the strategic
characteristics of the supply chain relationship, supplier performance, and local
characteristics.