Supplier performance can be assessed through a questionnaire or informal system, with feedback used for periodic review. Guidelines should be established upfront, and an evaluation tool should ask for feedback on quality, price, delivery, and service. Data should be collected and summarized to determine a rating on an acceptable to unacceptable performance scale.
The supplier’s overall performance can be assessed by rating the supplier in terms of quality, price, delivery, and service. In larger organizations, the purchasing department can distribute a questionnaire to any employee using an approved third-party vendor, asking the employee to comment on the experience. Feedback is typically fed into the supplier management system and forms the basis of periodic supplier review and quality control. Smaller companies can use a written survey or an informal system of checks and balances. In any case, a supplier is generally subject to periodic review in the same way as an employee to ensure continued work to standards.
Supplier management occurs on a continuum that begins with an agreement on deliverables, which includes clear transmission of guidelines and standards. Before implementing a formal supplier performance review, make sure you have committed your guidelines to writing and that your suppliers are aware of your expectations. If you have employees who deal directly with vendors and participate in the assessment process, make sure they are also aware of the guidelines. Setting a performance standard upfront allows for more consistent assessment on the backend and takes some of the subjectivity out of the process that can unfairly skew the results.
An assessment tool must be written. It could be a written survey or questionnaire, or a series of questions asked through an oral interview. Part of designing the tool is determining how it will be administered. Feedback on supplier performance can be collected after each contact or collected periodically. A questionnaire presented after each contact may be shorter, while one that reviews an employee’s experience with a supplier over a longer period may need more detail.
The evaluation tool should ask for feedback on quality, price, delivery and service. Quality should address the evaluator’s satisfaction with the supplier’s goods or services. Pricing should address the total cost of goods or services compared to inherent value and the cost of using other providers. Delivery must take into account availability, response time and reliability. The service should assess the provider’s responsiveness, professionalism, customer service, and adherence to standards.
Perhaps the most important part of the supplier performance evaluation process is establishing a system for collecting, summarizing, and retaining evaluation tool data. Whether you solicit feedback from two employees or two hundred on supplier interactions, the results must be synthesized and distilled down to some sort of grade or rating on an acceptable to unacceptable performance scale. There are Internet-based software packages and content systems that can ease the entire supplier management process, but you can also do the work manually by establishing a supplier file, collecting the surveys, reviewing the results, and assigning a rating that will determine whether or not the vendor remains on your approved vendor list.
Asset Smart.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
