Most of the manufacturing firm's today are operating in increasingly uncongenial business environments that are characterized by rapid technological change, complexity of the products, shortened product life cycles, turbulent market dynamism, heterogeneous of demand and intensifying global competition. As competition intensifies, organizations are required to provide superior quality products, at low costs, with on-time and reliable delivery performance. Organizations are looking at ways to achieve these requirements by adopting various intra and inter-organizational practices. Researchers focus on the strategic partnership with suppliers in innovation of firm's, and suggest that strategic partnership with suppliers enables firm's to reduce the risks, short cycle time of new product development, and technology & complexity of product while enhancing flexibility, product quality and market adaptability. Authors have noted that supplier management is an important tool for increasing competitive advantage. The supplier selection problems become one of the most important components in SCM.
