The fastener industry is significant worldwide as it provides basic components to
automotive, aerospace, construction, and other electronic industries. This is an
important value proposition that creates severe supplier selection dilemmas for
companies in the industry: quality implications, costs, delivery reliability, and
compliance with international standards may pull in opposite directions. These
challenges compound with issues of international supply chain management, supply
and demand of materials, and the volatility of dynamic systems. Hence, the role of this
thesis is to explore the characteristics of supplier selection problems in the fasteners
industry in a GMS context and supply chain management, material requirements, and
in a dynamic market environment.
Due to the exploratory nature of this research that involves interviews with
practitioners, the paper looks at other supplier selection attributes and evaluates other
models of selection like AHP and scoring models. As much as these methods mentioned
in the study fail to capture the specificity within the fastener industry to meet the needs
of diverse companies, the study sheds light on how new technologies, including
blockchain, and advanced analytics can enhance supplier evaluation and tracking.
This study therefore reveals the need to include the aspect of quality management, cost
control, and supply risk management within the supplier evaluation models. Moreover,
based on the study, the peculiarities are factors that are unique to the industry mainly
concerning the availability of materials, geopolitical risk, and sustainability.
Therefore, this thesis contributes to extending the bodies of knowledge by identifying
the gaps or the misalignment between the theories and the facts in the case of the
fastener industry. It provides valuable recommendations to manufacturers, suppliers,
and policymakers to enhance decision-making and facilitate better SC operations with
less risk in a more unpredictable environment.
