Demystifying Manufacturer Satisfaction through Kano Model

Abstract

Suppliers’ role has been gaining strategic significance among the manufacturing supply chains as the competition between them is potentially guided by the strength of their supply base and the level of supply chain integration achieved. Most of the manufacturers started realizing that the tradition of treating their suppliers functionally put them on the losing end rather than on the gaining. So, the manufacturers have started exploring and at times developing their supply base to gain competitive advantages. With this increase in the manufacturers’ interest in exploring and developing the suppliers, onus is now on the supplier to prevent the manufacturer switching to other suppliers and to become the preferred supplier for the manufacturer for its development. However, most of the suppliers fail to relate with the intent of Supplier Development (SD) and are losing out the opportunity for their development as well as the development of nation's manufacturing industry in the current scenario. Sometimes, even though the suppliers find SD as beneficial for them, still they fall short off without being able to showcase enough justification for the manufacturer to go for SD. Thus, in order to address these issues and assist a supplier to favorably and preferably associate with the manufacturer, the current study presents an application of Kano model for achieving the manufacturer satisfaction.