The choice of a supplier can have a major impact on the safety and product quality of your end products. For example, if you purchase raw materials that do not meet the correct safety or quality requirements, this may mean that you will receive complaints about the taste, appearance, firmness, … Unsuitable transport of products can also pose a potential risk to safety or quality. By performing supplier control, you know which requirements the products or services purchased meet. This way you can easily assess the profitability of your suppliers.
SUPPLIER CONTROL
Start with supplier management
Your supplier management process will vary from company to company, depending on the products you purchase and the certification standards you must meet. You first have to estimate the dangers and risks associated with the purchase of products and services and how you can control this. Based on this, you will approach suppliers and request the necessary information.
You determine which information you need to request per supplier type. It is a good idea to always refer to the certification standard to find out what it requires with regard to supplier control. Information that you request from raw material suppliers, for example, are product specifications, copies of (GFSI recognized) certificates, analysis reports and supplier questionnaires.
Once you have received information from each supplier, assess:
- whether you have received all the requested information;
- whether you have received the correct information;
- whether the supplier meets the requirements.
Where necessary, you request additional information or, if the supplier has been conclusively dismissed, you look for another supplier. Once the supplier has been approved, he may supply the products or services. It is important to keep buyers well informed about rejected and approved suppliers.
It is smart to keep an overview of all suppliers, the information received and the findings. We understand that the process of supplier management and maintaining such an overview involves a lot of work. In the long run, however, this will prevent a lot of unnecessary costs and work.
Quality supplier management staff
Companies that attach great importance to quality in their production process often also recruit “quality supplier management staff”. Their duties and responsibilities include:
- Ensure the availability of qualitative and up-to-date supplier data from the various information systems;
- Data-analyse;
- Developing assessment criteria and keeping them up to date on the basis of the requirements from the various quality systems;
- Assessment of existing suppliers on issues such as quality and delivery reliability;
- Contribute to the management and maintenance of the various quality systems;
- Carrying out a step-by-step supplier selection based on clearly formulated selection criteria;
- Develop and improve processes and procedures and secure them in the organization;
- Contribute to supply chain management;
- Drafting various quality reports with the aim of structurally improving product quality;
- Keeping up with legislation, social and scientific developments in the field of quality management.
TRAINING & COACHING
G&P quality management offers training and coaching to master the methodology of supplier management. The main goal of a well-founded supply chain management process is to strive for continuous improvement of the delivered goods & services. It is essential to apply the PDCA principle (or DMAIC).
In addition to the Supplier Management training, the following training courses and projects that we offer are also included:
- Shop Floor Assessment and/or Risk Analysis of existing and new suppliers
- Assessment of a production process by checking against the QSB elements
- Proposal of a corrective action plan and assistance with implementation/follow-up
FREE QUALITY ANALYSIS
Does your company have a product line that sometimes stops working, issues with the quality of suppliers or staff that could work more efficiently?
Our expert will be happy to visit you for an initial analysis of the business processes. Concrete proposals are made for improvement. Also for coaching and/or training of your staff you can book a free admittance meeting. During such a conversation, we listen and take a first look at where the improvement points are within your company.