Identifying best practices in supplier selection using a comprehensive benchmarking framework

Abstract

Supplier selection is highly industry specific with the industry specific regulations and requirements, making gauging the quality of the process difficult. This arises the requirement for industry practitioners and quality institutes to benchmark the Supplier Selection Process (SSP) to identify where the process adapted currently stands and what are the good practices within the industry. To cater to that need, this study has three objectives: to identify current supplier selection practices adopted by Sri Lankan practitioners, to derive a base benchmarking framework to assess the SSP of a firm and to identify best practices adapted by industry practitioners using the framework. This is achieved through a two-phase methodology: framework derivation and framework validation. From the validation phase it was discovered that employing such benchmarking framework creates opportunities for firms to improve existing SSP.