The analysis reveals that 89% of the case companies reached matu-rity level 3 (see Table 3, Optimize supply base) in terms of this
construct. At this level, companies use a basic supplier rating sys-tem; for this rating system, they measure at least the quality and the
delivery performance of key suppliers. Further, there is multidisci-plinary cooperation within a project over the selection and con-tracting of suppliers. Only about 37% of the case companies
had reached maturity level 4 (see Table3, Optimize supply base).
One reason for this sharp decline from 89% at level 3 to 37% at
level 4 in Table 3is that only 58% of the case companies have a
formal and documented supplier selection process in place that is
focused on the current needs and capabilities of the company (see
Table4, Supplier selection—level 4). A second reason is that only
42%of the case companies have a supply base optimization plan on
the basis of the supplier rating system (see Table 4, Optimizing
supplier base—level 4).