Improvement in supplier selection mechanism in Indian electronics & telecommunication supply chain

Strategic sourcing refers to a set of activities to discover, evaluate, select, develop, and manage a viable supply base. Supplier base reduction, their location, cost reduction, technology development, quality consciousness improvement, cycle time reduction, and relationship management, and delivery capabilities enhancement for the purpose of gaining competitive advantage. While selecting potential Suppliers, firms need to adapt a repeatable evaluation process to develop a strategic system incorporating a number of selection criteria. One of the major criteria for selection of a potential Supplier was cost of the product or service in question. This paper describes the critical success factors in selecting the supplier for a major E&TC service provider in India. The selection criteria's are product, quality, price and cost management, delivery, supplier relationship management, decision-making, government policies and business ethics. The methodology proposed in this paper includes an investigation and analytical review of all variables and factors influencing the supplier selection strategy. The ordinary analytical data are based on the literature review while the primary data are based on survey questionnaire process. The data were collected from 5 major Electronics & Telecommunication service providers in India. The questionnaire was developed after going through few stages of process. First stage was a content validity which involves the expert opinion and comments. This paper focuses onto develop a conceptual model framework, examine and test the model for supplier selection for the Electronics & Telecommunications industry in India.