Based on a questionnaire focusing on the existence of various types of relation and sent to the Örnsköldsvik Industrial Group in 1987 and 1998, an effort to capture the dynamics is made. After a statistical analysis of the data obtained, it can be concluded that the structure of the industry has changed only marginally but that the companies that have been members of the industrial group for many years do have more relations with each other. These relations both relate to buyer-seller relationships as co-operation.

The general purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse how collaboration in supplier network influence the individual supplier. The focus is the influence on the supplier's strategic development and how it influences the customer relationship. The empirical data in the study is seven cases, which includes the supplier network Trä 50, five of the participating companies, and their common customer Ikea.

The collaborating companies are SME in the furniture manufacturing industry, primarily active on the Swedish furniture market dominated by furniture retailers such as Ikea, Em and Mio. The suppliers are in a weak position and collaboration is often argued as a way to change the situation. During the past decade, large amounts of money have been spent by the EU and the Swedish government to encourage and support collaboration projects, in the furniture manufacturing industry and also in other industries. However, argumentation for collaboration is seldom underpinned with data on the actual outcome for the individual participating company. Therefore is the benefit from collaboration for the individual company central in this thesis.

The research questions are based on the view that there is three elements that can influence each other when suppliers collaborate: the supplier, the customer and the supplier network. All influences between these elements are studied in this thesis to understand the collaboration's total influence on the individual supplier. To achieve this was the development of the five suppliers studied, the customer's purchasing strategy and the supplier network's activities.

Trä 50 was a collaboration project, founded to reduce the lead-time by 50 percent for the participating companies. The participating companies had high goals and saw collaboration as an opportunity. It was especially exchange of experience and knowledge that attracted them. Trä 50 turned out to become much more than one project. Bonus agreements in purchasing, study tours abroad, a market oriented project, and study visits at each other's companies were some of the activities in Trä 50 during the approximately ten active years. The participants consider Trä 50 as a successful collaboration.

Ikea was not a member of Trä 50, but the company was involved in the founding of Trä 50 and different representatives from lkea were often invited to seminars and discussions. Partnerships between Ikea and the individual suppliers were for instance discussed.

One conclusion of this study is that collaboration can have significant influence on the individual company, but also not any influence at all. The result depends on factors such as the company's involvement in the activities, the management's attitude to and goals with the collaboration and the fultilment of the goals.

All the participating companies did not reach the goal 50 per cent reduction of the leadtimes, but they did improve the production processes, and increased the production capacity. The over aU result from Trä 50 for the participants were improved knowledge development, and personal development for the managers. An additional contact channel to the customer was established through the network. Business negotiations were still held on the single company level, and knowledge development on the network level - a kind of Meta relation to the customer emerged. The knowledge development led among other things to a "fine-tuning" of the companies strategies. The collaboration led to few new customer, but larger volumes at Ikea.

The reasons for the success of Trä 50 were many, but some are more noticeable. A friendly and trusting atmosphere emerged among the representatives from the companies. They also worked hard on the projects though, to stay competitive among each other. Furthermore, the companies' had similar problems and the relation to Ikea. The large customer meant many possibilities, but its power was also a threat. The suppliers shared a love-hate feeling toward the customer. The active part that Ikea did take in the collaboration by attending meetings, seminars, and discuss issues such as partnership was another reason to the success.

The individual company's relation to the customer Ikea was also influenced. The companies got a broader net of contacts at Ikea. The collaboration made them more visible at the customer, and this led to an improved position for the supplier and the customer-supplier ties were strengthened.

Coopetition, i.e., parallel competition and cooperation between the same companies, has many faces in the automotive industry. This paper focuses on vertically mediated coopetition in product development. The concept of 'chambre separée' is introduced as a metaphor for supplier-mediated coopetition to denote the situation when competing car manufacturers, often called OEMs, partner the same supplier in different product development projects. These projects are organisationally kept apart. When a supplier handles several development projects at the same time with different OEMs, 'chambres separées' is a way to protect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and allow OEM-specific solutions to be developed. But at the same time, the competitors are supporting the building of a common core competence at the First-Tier Suppliers (FTSs). The OEMs also accept some 'overhearing' from one project to another, which strengthens the supplier's knowledge base. Coopetition in this form tends to be advantageous to both OEMs and FTSs. Copyright © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

  As a consequence of increased outsourcing, companies become more and more virtual organisations and dependent upon external sources to reach their strategic objectives. Here, lacking supplier performance or commitment can result in failure of the outsourcing programme that significantly risks the financial results of the outsourcing company. Consequently, when outsourcing it is important to assure that the supplier performs as expected. This study uses a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) perspective for investigating performance measurements in outsourcing. The results illustrate the importance of a process perspective when outsourcing (securing volume, high quality at the right time). Formulating a BSC for a supplier, an outsourcing company could better control/steer the supplier on an output/performance level.

This paper investigates how a model for the outsourcing decision can be developed when customer and suppliers are working on a transaction orientated basis. Linked to this is that there is a stated need in literature for more research to develop models that can provide managerial guidance how much organisations should outsource and under which circumstances mixed strategies can be suitable (i.e. combining parallel production and outsourcing). The research has used a case study approach, and it was based on two leading European companies in the floor and window industries. The study identifies some main advantages and reasons for combing outsourcing with in-house parallel production. Finally, a model is formulated that will assist a company when considering outsourcing strategies.

This report is an extension of deep structure "socio-cultural" approach ininternational marketing by:

1- Developing methodological and conceptual tools for understanding socio-cultural characteristic of the Middle - East nations, example of Saudi Arabia; buyer behavior and buyer seller relationship.

2- Interprating buyers actions, decision making process, imoressions ,etc. and explorin~ the Swedish businessmen's problems in adapting business dealin9 to the buyer's socio-cultura 1 terms.

3 - Finally suggesting some tactics for making further marketing progress in Saudi Arabia.

"Qualität ist nicht alles, aber ohne Qualität ist alles nichts!", so Walter Masing. Wie kaum ein anderer hat Masing den Qualitätsbegriff geprägt und durch sein Wirken maßgeblich beeinflusst. Die DGQ gedenkt mit diesem Werk ihrem langjährigen Präsidenten und Ehren-Präsidenten. Unter der Herausgeberschaft von Herrn Professor Schnauber zeigen namhafte nationale und internationale Autoren aus Wissenschaft und Praxis, wie eng Kreativität und Innovation mit Qualitätsmanagement verknüpft sind - getreu des Leitmotivs von Walter Masing: nur mit einer gesicherten Basis lassen sich neue Gedanken generieren! Die Autoren widmen ihre Beiträge dieser großen Persönlichkeit des Qualitätsmanagements, dessen Einfluss weiterwähren wird.

  Quality Tools and Methods for The 21st Century. Perspectives of the International Academy for Quality.  

A collection of writings about quality as a management discipline, business management, and product management. Edited by Tito Conti, Yoshio Kondo, and Gregory H. Watson.  Also includes valuable quality ideas and concepts from Hans Dieter Seghezzi, Barrie G. Dale, Norman Burgress, Jens J. Dahlgaard, Su Mi Park Dahlgaard, Herbert Schnauber, Joachim Zulch, Asbjorn Aune, Sijo Shiba, David Walden, Yoji Akao, Thong Ngee Goh, and Shoichi Shimizu.

The topics in this book are divided into three parts. The first part describes quality as a management discipline that must be practiced with the same degree of attention to detail as is required for finance systems, information systems, and people systems. The focus of the second part is on topics where integration of quality and business management practices will create a more stable overall management system. The third part of this book describes contributions of quality methods to the innovative design of products and services. It is in this area that organizations can continue their development by using new management practices, methods and concepts as enablers of change to help them achieve their desire for long-term competitive strength.    

As quality transitions into the mainstream of management, the emphasis of quality professionals must focus on the areas of innovation and design to ensure the future quality of business. This challenge of innovation will define the next focus areas for management in the coming decades.