In many companies, the evaluation of the contractors for logistics services remains haphazard or is related strictly to past performance. Pragmatic approaches are called for so that strategic aspects can be incorporated into the process more tightly. A procedure which has proven itself in practice for the identification of those vendors from the logistics sector who are suitable for long-term business relationships begins by restricting the number of companies which come into question. A preliminary selection is made by teams with overlapping functions from such sectors as intralogistics, packaging, logistics systems, transport, and purchasing. Criteria at this stage include costs of non-delivery, delayed delivery, or incorrect delivery, specific investments which have already been made, the degree to which the supplier is integrated into existing processes, the procurement volume, and the intensity of the development partnership. The team members are qualified personnel who can judge the suppliers' performance comprehensively and from various perspectives.

Quality of the relationship decisive

The actual evaluation of the strategic status, i.e., the vendor's suitability for long-term cooperation, is conducted along the lines of three major criteria which are assessed according to a number of sub-criteria.

The first major criterion: the vendor's long-term commitment to the relevant business field must be assured. He must continue to offer the pertinent material group such as specific packaging foils or special transport services and must not reorient his business activities. This can be assessed by looking at sub-criteria such as "technology leadership", "development of turnover", and "size of staff" for each of the relevant business fields. The amount of investments in the relevant training of employees or in special innovations affects the evaluation results as well.