INNOVATIVE SUPPLIER PARTNERSHIP ASSESSMENT MODEL IN A POLISH TRADING ENTERPRISE

The relationship between a company and a supplier is a strategic resource for both parties. Therefore, the necessity to develop a mechanism of an integrated approach to cooperation with suppliers, which is based on partnership, is becoming more and more pronounced. Such an approach necessitates taking into consideration an abundance of factors accompanying cooperation within a mutual venture. These factors may include: compatibility of businesses – similar values, organizational cultures, and goals or the philosophy and management methods. The objective of the article is to present a supplier partnership assessment model as implemented in a Polish trading enterprise, as well as proposed assessment criteria and methods. Verification of the criteria applied to suppliers has been performed on the example of Centrum Projekcji Multimedialnych, which is a dealer of the following companies: inFocus, Sony, Sanyo, Toshiba, Epson, Panasonic, and 3M. Operational data of the company have been used for that purpose; in turn, the assessment and selection of the key suppliers took place through the use of the following methods: ABC analysis, scoring, the graphics method, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process method. Out of 18 suppliers that the company cooperates with on an ongoing basis, six key ones were selected. The results of supplier partnerships suggest that some criteria applicable to the company’s suppliers are more significant than others, and that they are the ones which ought to underlie the system of such assessment. The presented supplier partnership assessment model allows selecting suppliers that will be providing best quality goods at the lowest price.