Supplier logistics performance measurement: Indications from a study in the automotive industry

Managing the supply base is an important but complex issue for automotive manufacturers. One of the instruments companies use in this context is performance measurement. There is ample work on the practice of performance measurement within an organisation. However, much less can be found about the practice of supplier performance measurement. In this paper we offer a brief discussion of the literature on inter-organisational performance measurement and contrast existing concepts of intra-organisational performance measurement with the concepts of performance measurement within a supply chain. We then present indications from a study of four vehicle manufacturers in Europe with regards to their practices of supplier evaluation and present a conceptual framework identifying the functions of performance measurement in this context. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.