An approach to address principal supplier development impediments

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assist a manufacturer for determining the principal supplier development impediments (SDIs) that are affecting the supplier development programs (SDPs) and yield a basis for drawing the appropriate mitigation strategies. Design/methodology/approach The proposed approach starts with the application of fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and Pareto analysis to obtain the principal SDIs. Subsequently, the interpretive structural modeling and Fuzzy-Matrice d’Impacts Croisés-Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement analysis are applied on the principal SDIs to explore the root causes inducing ineffectiveness in the SDPs. Findings The outcomes of the proposed approach were demonstrated through a case study conducted in an Indian automotive components manufacturing company. The principal SDIs were identified, ranked, classified and structurally related for the said case company’s manufacturing environment. It was found that the lack of competent workforce, level of nascent relationship between manufacturer and suppliers and poor devolution of authority were the main SDIs that the case company has to primarily focus to make its SDPs effective. Research limitations/implications Although the study was conducted in a practical case situation, the obtained results are not indiscriminate to the other case situations. However, the proposed approach can be applied for analyzing the SDIs in any manufacturing environment once the set of SDIs relevant to that environment are carefully chosen. Practical implications The methodology would assist a manufacturer to proactively identify the SDIs that it has to primarily focus and subsequently devise the mitigation strategies for smooth running of its SDPs. Originality/value By utilizing the identified SDIs and applying the proposed methodology a manufacturer can find the main SDIs that are making the SDPs ineffective and accordingly fix the hindrances through certain mitigation strategies designed.