Design and development of a supplier evaluation process

Low-cost sourcing is a strategy many companies, including Pratt & Whitney, use to reduce part costs. As they increase their efforts to resource products to low-cost regions, Pratt & Whitney needs a robust process to effectively evaluate potential suppliers and identify those suppliers that are most capable of satisfying their manufacturing and business needs. Through the development of a Supplier Evaluation Process, this need is realized and a case study is presented that highlights the use of such a process. In addition, the topic of trust in buyer-supplier relationships is also explored. Through the process of developing new suppliers, Pratt & Whitney invests time, labor, knowledge and skills that they have developed to quickly improve a new supplier's business and manufacturing capabilities. The methods that Pratt & Whitney uses to accomplish this task, as well as the risks that they are subject to, are closely linked to what is deemed in the literature as trust building activities. This thesis seeks to understand the role of trust in the buyer-supplier relationship that Pratt & Whitney creates with low-cost sources and to highlight the benefits that Pratt & Whitney realizes as a result of these relationships.

Department dc:contributor.department

Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Corum, Andrew (Andrew R.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Daniel Whitney and Richard Locke.

• Sloan School of Management.
• Engineering Systems Division.
• Leaders for Manufacturing Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49779

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/49779