The Impact of an SRM System on the Supply Chain and a Company's Performance

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 1,0, Northumbria University, language: English, abstract: Over the last few decades, the status of a supplier changed from a simple supplier of goods to a strategic partner. Numerous companies have recognised this development and drive for collaboration with their suppliers, in order to enable mutual growth. The literature review will firstly discuss supply chain management in general, followed by a presentation of the different SCM practices for supply chain improvement. The strategic supplier partnership will be further discussed, and the different buyer-supplier relationships will then be presented. Multiple studies will be listed which disclose the positive impact of a successful and long-term buyer-supplier relationship. Nevertheless, should exceptional long-lasting buyer-supplier relationships not be seen as a universal key to success, therefore a management system for supplier relationships will be introduced. The results from the literature review will be compared with the collected primary data. The primary research consists of 5 semi-structured interviews with representatives from global acting companies, which have an implemented SRM system. The findings of the research show, that all of the involved organisations see their suppliers as strategic partners, but at the same time allocate different relationship types to their different suppliers. In addition, the numerous processual and organisational impacts on the supply chain after the implementation of an SRM system have been disclosed. These include the centralisation and standardization of processes and supplier data as well as a significant increase in companywide transparency. Furthermore, a positive impact of an SRM system on the company’s performance has been identified, throughout the completion of the research project. Therefore, an SRM system should be seen as a tool that promotes and extracts the benefits of a successful buyer-supplier relationship.