It really gets challenging when even the most-reliable supplier could not deliver the required output consistently since we rely on the supplier for both quality of work and on-time delivery. When the supplier does not respond according to our needs, it could be due to a number of reasons including not assessing and evaluating the supplier’s capability and capacity at the time of selection.
What is supplier assessment?
Supplier assessment is the process of assessing and approving the suppliers standards using various qualitative and quantitative evaluation measures. The objective is to collect a portfolio of potential suppliers and assess their capability and capacity to see if they will be able to meet the requirements of the company on a consistent basis. The process is followed to assess and evaluate the existing suppliers for their performances so that mutual communication and agreement is made on the expectations of the company and commitment to meet them by the suppliers. The assessment also drives the management to establish healthy relations and mitigate the risks involved.
Supplier assessments can be done as per the company (customer) requirements and can utilize international standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, API Q1 and AS 9100.
Importance of supplier assessment and evaluation
The supplier assessment is critical in the global market scenario today since a company's performance and delivery of its products and services to its customers directly depend on the supplier's performance. Supplier’s poor performance can result in production losses and increase the cost of its product and service while potentially impacting the company's ability to meet customer demand. Companies that regularly assess the performance of their suppliers have found better visibility in improving the supplier performance, therefore mitigating the risk of delivering bad quality of product or late delivery to its customers. The process allows them to elevate their supplier base, reduce risk, remove hidden costs and gain the competitive advantage.
Performance improvement
Real-time analysis of the suppliers makes it easy to measure their performance and work with them towards improving their performance. The improvement can benefit the suppliers by continued business with the company and allowing the supplier to deliver better service to their other customers too.
Removes waste and inefficiency
Strong evaluation of the suppliers helps businesses to drive out wastes and inefficiencies, resulting in high-quality suppliers on the list. While having a sustainable procurement process t is prone to potential risks, having an understanding of its suppliers lowers the business risk and can help lower the costs of goods/services procured.
Reducing risk factors
The dependency on the key suppliers also increases the risk of company’s performance to its customers. Supplier evaluation provides proper insights on the performance levels of the suppliers that enables reducing the business risks associated with supplier dependency.
Leveraging supply base
Management can plan for a threshold for its suppliers based on the supplier evaluation. It allows the business to plan a new product line and expansion even better since the management will be aware of suppliers’ capabilities, expertise, and performance levels.
Aligning practices – supplier and customer
Ideally, the suppliers should operate their business operations in alignment with their customer’s expectations and excellence levels. The supplier assessment process helps identify gaps in reference to the customer expectations, allowing both the sides to work together and remove or reduce the gap. In the current competitive environment, the customers expect higher levels of standards, social responsibility and constant improvement over the operations.
Over a period of time, AQSS has established its reputation as one of the best companies for supplier assessments. AQSS can conduct supplier audits and assessments using customer specifications and ISO standards related to quality, environment, health and safety management or any other international standard. AQSS has experienced and qualified auditors with a growing list of satisfied customers. Based in Houston, AQSS can provide supplier audit and assessment services through on-site visit and remotely as needed across the US and in many counties around the world. Contact AQSS for your next supplier audit and assessment on +1 713-789-0885 or sales@aqss-usa.com.
