In this global competitive environment, parts suppliers and their approach to Zero defect has become very important for the survival of the industry. Most of the industries are conducting various awareness campaigns for their Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers to ensure Zero defect supplies.

Industries to achieve this, conduct regular audits, as below, on existing
suppliers. To enroll new suppliers, industries releases questionnaire covering the following topics and collect the feed back and check conformity.

Part drawings and changes, Design (DFMEA), Process FMEA (PFMEA)
Process flow control plan,
Input raw material qualification and traceability,
Identification of tools and gauges,
Addressing special characteristic identified by the customer,
Adherence of special operating procedures (SOP),
Proper identification of rejections their and approach to root cause analysis,
Adherence of customer instruction on packing and shipping,
Preventive maintenance plan,
On time calibration of gauges,
Capacity and capability study.

Besides the above, they also look for

Third party registration to ISO certifications TS 16949 and request for QS 14000.
Maintenance of documents and updates,
Supplier involvement in holding inventory for customers,
Just in time deliveries, and House keeping.

They also check for Top management involvement in the improvement of the above topics, R&D involvement, cost and cost break downs, continuous improvement, response to customer new products, labor approach and balance sheet.

Supplier Performance Awards

Most of the industries institute awards for the best performance supplier of the year. Measuring suppliers’ performance involves implementing a supplier rating program at your organization.
A supplier rating program can be simple or complex, manual or electronic. When selecting the suppliers to evaluate, you have to determine a reasonable number
of suppliers. Suppliers for rating should include (a) those suppliers with whom you spend a lot of money and (b) those suppliers who have the most impact on your operations.
By rating your suppliers, you are ensuring that your suppliers are adequately contributing to your company’s success. Common ways of collecting information’s are supplier scorecards, system metrics, and SCEM software. Industry should recognize and reward good supplier performance and immediately collaborate with poor performing suppliers to correct performance deficiencies. Your supplier rating will improve supplier performance. And better supplier performance will help your organization be more efficient, produce higher quality products or services, reduce costs, and increase profits.
Supplier link is very important in the Supply Chain. Unless they perform well supply chain system will not be effective.

Mr. Lakshminarasimhan Raghavan

(Tradeindia Expert)

Freelance

Consultant, Freelance
Chennai, India