Supplier Management

CMMI Ltd Supplier Management Service

The key to supplier management is to plan in advance before any contract is placed.  The contract must ensure that regular reviews at the suppliers' premises can take place before the unexpected materialises.  Managed appropriately, both parties will benefit from the support provided by CMMI Ltd, a win/win situation. It is not unusual at the time of the contract agreement or bid for the customer or prime contractor to disregard the controls necessary if something goes wrong such as overlooking adequate quality requirements and penalty clauses.   Was assessment of a proposed supplier effective or as is so often the case was the vendor chosen on price without adequate costing the risks?  It may be necessary to rely on supporting conditions that may have been applied such as ISO 9001.

Selection of Suppliers

Suppliers should be selected against previous performance based on previous good and bad experience of suppliers and contractors across the company.  The Vendors Assessment Register shall record suppliers and contractors by name, rating and product or service.  This will then provide a record of performance for a particular supplier against product type.  Today the Intranet can provide information regarding the performance and service and supplier organisations.   If a suitable supplier can not be found from either of these sources owing to specialist capabilities required, the alternative supplier may require to be subjected to vendor assessment

Vendor Assessment

A potential contractor shall be required to fill in the Suppliers Questionnaire Form OP06SQF1.DOC.  To enable a more detailed assessment, the Vendor Appraisal Questionnaire OP06VAQ1.DOC may be used by BOS as a guide during this assessment of a potential supplier’s capability.  The above completed form in-conjunction with any previous knowledge of the supplier identified at the Vendor Review meeting, will be used in completing the Supplier Assessment Form OP06SAF1.DOC.  A potential supplier may be included in the suppliers register by one of the following criteria: - 

CMMI Ltd is highly experienced in supplier management in the Hardware, Software and Service Industries having worked at major manufacturers and service industries in Europe and the USA as well as providing contract support to small organisations.  Employing CMMI Ltd to support product assurance at a suppliers premises is particularly cost effective where manufacture is in the UK and the customer is abroad. Services provided are:-

  1. Vendor Assessment

  2. Start up and Risk Review

  3. Ongoing Contract Support

  4. Facilitate Change Control Boards

  5. Factory Acceptance Testing of Hardware and Software products.

In some cases to get the quality you want when you want it, it may be a viable proposition to purchase the supplier.  CMMI Ltd have provided Management  Services in the procurement of companies. 

Supporting templates are currently available only through the consulting services.

  1. Hold an existing recognised Quality approval, and be assessed as suitable from Quality or Procurement's knowledge of the company.

  2. Return a Suppliers Questionnaire Form OP06SQF1.DOC which they will have completed and are deemed to be satisfactory under the vendor assessment procedure.

  3. Subjected to satisfactory vendor appraisal meeting.

Vendor Rating Process

The rating for sub-contractors is assessed at a Vendor Assessment Meeting held monthly, with Vendor Rating representation from Quality Assurance, Engineering and Procurement.  This may be undertaken at an ad-hock meeting in the event of a new supplier being urgently requested.  The rating value will be assessed by Purchasing on grounds of cost and service.  The Engineering rating will be based on capability, performance, availability, co-operation and location.  The Quality rating will consider previous performance, Vendor Assessments and Approvals currently held. Suppliers will be rated in three categories 1, 2, and Limited (L).

  1. Category 1 A supplier who has continually demonstrated an acceptable performance or has been subject to a satisfactory vendor appraisal. This is the first choice to be used where possible.

  2. Category 2 Signifies a supplier who may have a recognised shortfall in their capability either as a result of previous performance or assessed risk.  Category 2 suppliers are to be used where there is no company with a category 1 rating who is capable of meeting the requirements economically.

  3. Category L (limited) shall identify sub-contractors who are necessary for Bounty business but have failed to maintain or be assessed as meeting one of the above criteria.

Verification of Purchased Products

If it is believed the supplier can not exercise sufficient Quality Control, it may necessary to monitor the work at the sub-contractor’s premises, in which case this will be made a condition of the order.  The decision to undertake Verification or Factory acceptance Testing (FAT) at source may also depend on the complexity of testing or special equipment required.