title: Creating win-win customer-supplier partnerships.
abstract: Today's global competition mandates that each customer-supplier combination achieve a balance between the supplier's manufacturing flexibility and the customer's schedule stability. Sharing valid schedules, working on quality together, reducing each other's costs, and streamlining communications allows a customer and supplier to become true enterprise partners.
authors.affiliation: Ann Willis Associates, Mooresville, NC, USA.
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Willis
mesh_terms: D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003284:Contract Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D004864:Equipment and Supplies / Q000191:economics / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D007221:Industry / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D008421:Materials Management, Hospital; D015279:Organizational Culture; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D010934:Planning Techniques; D011786:Quality Control; D017749:Total Quality Management; D014481:United States