Improving the New Supplier Search and Selection in the Sourcing Process

This thesis focuses on the improvement of the sourcing process in the case company sourcing organization. The defined area of the sourcing process is supplier search and selection processes. The case organization works successfully globally, but there are still uncertainty and some deviations in the procedures related to supplier search and selection which leaves room for improvement. The study is carried out by exploring the existing processes related to supplier search and selection in the sourcing process, as well as conducting a survey from a group of pre-defined key stakeholders from the organization. The challenges identified from these two sources are compared to available knowledge and best practice found from literature. The identified issues from the current state analysis and the best practice found from literature are then used to create a conceptual framework for solution. After which the final proposal was built extended by insight and feedback given by the key stakeholder defined for this study. After the final proposal, validation suggestions were obtained, as well as recommendations for the sourcing organization on how to proceed. The thesis is using qualitative methods to search for data and information from the sources available. The main sources for data are the case company databases, discussions with the key stakeholder, sourcing organizations intranet pages and the key stakeholder’s survey results. The outcome of the thesis is an improved process for supplier search and selection for the sourcing organization. The improved process includes the exact work flow and attributes that can be used as they are defined. The outcome has not been implemented yet as presented in this study, but gives a good overview what the current sourcing process can be in the future, and also indicates that changes are needed for the current sourcing process