Manufacturing Sourcing Practices and Relationships

Product‐sourcing practices can impact the competitiveness of an organization's products and services. Many sourcing practices exist and the challenge is to find the right practice, for the right product, at the right time. This paper describes a survey of 3,500 of UK companies, and reports on current and intended manufacturing sourcing practices; the associated decision‐making processes; and, the principal motives behind sourcing decisions. Key findings demonstrate a strong and ambitious trend towards open, integrated relationships between manufacturers and their principal suppliers; sourcing decisions increasingly based on well‐structured analysis of business needs and capabilities; and, the chief motivators being financial and market factors.