City Research Online

Failure Risk and Quality Cost Management in Single versus Multiple Sourcing Decision

Yim, A. (2014). Failure Risk and Quality Cost Management in Single versus Multiple Sourcing Decision. Decision Sciences, 45(2), pp. 341-354. doi: 10.1111/deci.12070

Abstract

The advantage of multiple sourcing to protect against supplier failures arising from undependable products due to latent defects is examined using a model with non-linear external failure costs. Prior research has focused only on supplier failures arising from unreliable supply, such as late/insufficient/no delivery. I derive a closed-form characterization of the optimal production quota allocation for the LUX (Latent defect-Undependable product-eXternal failure) setting. The allocation determines the optimal supply base, with intuitive properties that hold under a mild requirement. The requirement includes the special case of equal procurement costs charged by suppliers but also allows unequal costs without any particular order. The key result of the paper is a necessary and sufficient condition determining whether single or multiple sourcing is optimal. Another condition is obtained to determine the exact size of the optimal supply base, provided the mild requirement holds. With minor modifications, the results also hold when a buyer-initiated procurement contract can be used to elicit private information on the suppliers’ unit variable production costs.

Publication Type: Article
Publisher Keywords: Supplier selection; latent defects; quality cost; total cost of purchasing; JEL L22; L24; M11; M21; M40
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
Departments: Bayes Business School
SWORD Depositor:
[thumbnail of Yim-Failure Risk and Quality Cost Management in Single versus Multiple Sourcing Decision_18Mar2013.pdf]
Preview
PDF
Download (282kB) | Preview

Export

Add to AnyAdd to TwitterAdd to FacebookAdd to LinkedinAdd to PinterestAdd to Email

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

Actions (login required)

Admin Login Admin Login