An intelligent supplier relationship management system for selecting and benchmarking suppliers

In today's accelerating world economy, the drive to cut costs continually and focus on core competencies has driven many to outsource some or all of their production. In this environment, improving supply chain execution and leveraging the supply base through effective supplier relationship management has become more critical than ever in achieving competitive advantage. It is found that the integration of customer relationship management (CRM) and supplier relationship management (SRM) to facilitate supply chain management in the areas of supplier selection using an artificial intelligence approach has become a promising solution for manufacturers to identify appropriate suppliers and trading partners to form a supply network on which they depend for products, services and distribution. In this paper, an intelligent supplier relationship management system (ISRMS) using hybrid case based reasoning (CBR) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) techniques to select and benchmark potential supplier is discussed. By using ISRMS in Honeywell Consumer Product (Hong Kong) Limited, the outsource cycle time from searching for potential suppliers to the allocation of order is greatly reduced.