APPENDIX A
Survey: Characteristics of Small Manufacturers
Appendix A contains a copy of the survey the committee sent to small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises and a summary of the results.
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
COMMISSION ON ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL SYSTEMS
BOARD ON MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING DESIGN
Office Location:
Harris Building, Room 262 2001 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W. Phone: (202) 334-3129 FAX: (202) 334-3718 rrusnak@nas.edu
Mailing Address:
2101 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20418
June 16, 1998
Dear Survey Participant:
On behalf of the National Research Council, I want to thank you for your participation. The objective of this survey is to determine what you think is important to satisfy your customers and to be a supplier for companies using modern supply chain management methods. This information will be used in conjunction with inputs from large companies to determine the most important attributes of good suppliers. Based on this analysis, the strategies will be developed for helping you to obtain needed capabilities.
We are not asking for your identity in the survey so you can be assured that your input is anonymous. In addition, we will only be using compiled data in our analysis, so individual results will not be revealed.
Inputs should be sent directly back to this office. Electronic response is strongly preferred (RRusnak@NAS.edu).
Again I want to thank you for your contribution. We anticipate that the ultimate results of this study will be used to assist you in becoming a first rate supplier and expanding your business.
Sincerely,
Robert M. Rusnak
Study Director
SURVEY
FACTORS FOR SUCCESS IN SUPPLY CHAINS
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
Characteristics of Respondent |
|
Industry |
________ ________ (SIC) |
Sales |
________ |
No. of employees Primary product(s) |
________ ________ |
Build-to-print or other |
________ |
% of sales from top three customers |
________ ________ ________ |
List the SIC codes of top three customers |
________ ________ |
Questions: |
||||
1. What percentage of your business transactions with your customer is done electronically? |
||||
2. To what extent do your top three customers share their future product and technology plans with you? |
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Insert number to reflect level: |
||||
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
never |
|
|
|
always |
Customer 1 ____ |
Customer 2 ____ |
Customer 3 ____ |
3. Do you have the following capabilities? |
||
|
(Now) |
(Near Future) |
SPC |
________ |
________ |
CAD |
________ |
________ |
CAM |
________ |
________ |
MRP |
________ |
________ |
ISO/QS |
________ |
________ |
HAZMAT |
________ |
________ |
4. How would you characterize your relationship with your top three customers? |
||||
Insert number to reflect level: |
||||
Insert number to reflect level: |
||||
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
adversarial |
|
|
|
full partner |
Customer 1 ____ |
|
|
|
|
Customer 2 ____ |
|
|
|
|
Customer 3 ____ |
|
|
|
|
5. What critical factors or new capabilities would improve your success as a supplier? |
||||
Insert number to reflect level: |
||||
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
not important |
|
|
|
very important |
Payment terms ____ |
||||
Customer recognition program ____ |
||||
Sharing of cost data ____ |
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Sharing of objective performance data ____ |
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Early involvement in customer product development ____ |
||||
Production forecast ____ |
||||
Financing ____ |
SURVEY RESULTS
There were 99 completed questionnaires, one of which was from a very small enterprise whose owners and employees only participate in the company on a part-time basis. The data from this company was not included in the database. Hence, the total sample size is 98.
TABLE A-1 General Characteristics
Question |
Number of Responses |
Mean |
Median |
Standard Deviation |
Annual sales ($ million) |
82 |
34.9 |
7.7 |
111.3 |
Number of employees |
95 |
226.7 |
75.0 |
514.8 |
Sales to top three customers as a percentage of total sales |
86 |
42.4 |
34.3 |
25.8 |
Percentage of transactions with customers performed electronically |
96 |
11.4 |
2.0 |
17.4 |
Extent to which customers share product and technology plans (1 [low] to 5 [high]) |
97 |
2.8 |
3.0 |
1.1 |
TABLE A-2 Capabilities of SMEs
Capability |
Number of Respondents |
Percentage with Capability Now |
Percentage Planning to Develop Capability |
Total (Percent) |
SPC |
98 |
55 |
12 |
67 |
CAD |
98 |
74 |
1 |
75 |
CAM |
98 |
47 |
11 |
58 |
MRP |
98 |
43 |
16 |
59 |
ISO/QS |
98 |
41 |
35 |
76 |
HAZMAT |
98 |
48 |
7 |
55 |
TABLE A-3 Relations with Top Three Customers
Number of Responses |
Mean |
Median |
Standard Deviation |
98 |
3.7 |
3.7 |
0.6 |
Scale: 1= adversarial; 5 = full partner |
TABLE A-4 Factors That Would Improve Probability of Supplier Success
Factors |
Number of Responses |
Mean |
Median |
Standard Deviation |
Improved payment terms |
96 |
2.8 |
3.0 |
1.3 |
Better customer recognition programs |
94 |
2.6 |
3.0 |
1.1 |
More extensive sharing of cost data |
96 |
2.4 |
2.0 |
1.2 |
More extensive sharing of performance data |
95 |
3.5 |
4.0 |
1.2 |
Earlier involvement in product development |
95 |
4.1 |
5.0 |
1.1 |
More extensive sharing of production forecasts |
94 |
3.8 |
4.0 |
1.2 |
Better financing |
93 |
2.4 |
2.0 |
1.3 |
Scale: 1 = not important; 5 = important |
TABLE A-5 General Characteristics of Subsamples
Question (averages) |
Large SMEs |
Small SMEs |
Dispersed Customer Base |
Concentrated Customer Base |
Number of respondents |
41 |
41 |
43 |
43 |
Annual sales (millions of dollars) |
65.4 |
3.5 |
47.5 |
14.5 |
Number of employees |
390.5 |
40.7 |
300.1 |
121.5 |
Sales from top three customers as a percentage of total sales |
34.8 |
42.3 |
19.5 |
65.6 |
Percentage of transactions with customers performed electronically |
10.9 |
13.2 |
7.5 |
15.4 |
Extent to which customers share product and technology plans (1 [no] to 5 [yes]) |
3.1 |
2.4 |
2.8 |
2.7 |
TABLE A-6 Capabilities of Large and Small SMEs
|
Percentage with Capability Now |
Percentage Planning to Develop Capability |
||
Capability |
Large SMEs |
Small SMEs |
Large SMEs |
Small SMEs |
Number in sample |
41 |
41 |
41 |
41 |
|
66 |
44 |
10 |
12 |
SPC |
88 |
59 |
0 |
0 |
CAD |
56 |
37 |
10 |
7 |
CAM |
59 |
22 |
15 |
17 |
MRP |
54 |
22 |
27 |
44 |
ISO/QS |
59 |
39 |
7 |
5 |
HAZMAT |
TABLE A-7 Capabilities of SMEs with Dispersed and Concentrated Customer Bases
|
Percentage with Capability Now |
Percentage Planning to Develop Capability |
||
Capability |
Dispersed Customer Base |
Concentrated Customer Base |
Dispersed Customer Base |
Concentrated Customer Base |
Number in sample |
43 |
43 |
43 |
43 |
SPC |
44 |
63 |
14 |
9 |
CAD |
72 |
70 |
0 |
2 |
CAM |
49 |
47 |
12 |
7 |
MRP |
42 |
47 |
19 |
14 |
ISO/QS |
35 |
44 |
49 |
21 |
HAZMAT |
47 |
49 |
5 |
9 |
TABLE A-8 Success Factors in Subsamples
Average importance of factors (based on scale of 1 to 5) |
Large SMEs |
Small SMEs |
Dispersed Customer Base |
Concentrated Customer Base |
Number of respondents |
41 |
41 |
43 |
43 |
Average relationship with top three customers |
3.7 |
3.7 |
3.6 |
3.7 |
Payment terms |
2.5 |
2.9 |
2.4 |
3.0 |
Customer recognition programs |
2.4 |
2.6 |
2.5 |
2.5 |
Sharing of cost data |
2.4 |
2.3 |
2.2 |
2.6 |
Sharing of performance data |
3.4 |
3.3 |
3.3 |
3.3 |
Early involvement in product development |
4.0 |
3.9 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
Sharing of production forecast |
3.9 |
3.5 |
3.4 |
3.9 |
Financing |
2.0 |
2.4 |
2.2 |
2.4 |