Manufacturing firms concentrate on their core competences, which increase the influence of the supply chain performance on their competitive position. Suppliers deliver the majority of a product’s architecture, which is considered as a key driver of a manufacturing firm. As a result, suppliers are strongly interrelated, due to dependencies of functions and components of the product. Established approaches for the evaluation of suppliers merely consider the individual performance of a supplier and neglects its strategic position in the supplier network. This paper presents a procedural model for the evaluation the strategic position of a supplier within the supplier network, based on the dependencies of a product’s architecture. Finally, the procedural model is applied at an industrial case study.     «

Manufacturing firms concentrate on their core competences, which increase the influence of the supply chain performance on their competitive position. Suppliers deliver the majority of a product’s architecture, which is considered as a key driver of a manufacturing firm. As a result, suppliers are strongly interrelated, due to dependencies of functions and components of the product. Established approaches for the evaluation of suppliers merely consider the individual performance of a supplier an...     »