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Denise Robitaille
Published: Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - 22:00 Now ponder your supplier’s situation. The roles are reversed, but the script is relatively unchanged. When you finally realize that the vendor sent you the wrong parts because that’s what you ordered, it’s time to get to work. Don’t get into a pointless blame game about accountability. It’s best to address the root cause of this problem and develop purchasing processes that will ensure that you—as the customer—don’t impede your supplier’s ability to serve you. Hopefully you’ll conclude that you need to do a better job of communicating to your suppliers exactly what it is that you want. Every placed purchase order is a contract between you and your supplier. It’s a documented statement of requirements. The better job you do of communicating what you need to your suppliers, the better they can serve you. Following are a few tips on what you might want to include in your purchasing documentation: Product requirements (including service contracts) Secondary processes Industry standards Some industries often accept criteria that are either commonly recognized or described in an industry-specific publication. You must determine two things: Delivery Additional requirements Electronic media Amendments Don’t blame your suppliers if you thwart their ability to fulfill your requirements. Communicate what you need clearly and adequately to ensure that they’ll be able to serve you properly. Quality Digest does not charge readers for its content. We believe that industry news is important for you to do your job, and Quality Digest supports businesses of all types. However, someone has to pay for this content. And that’s where advertising comes in. Most people consider ads a nuisance, but they do serve a useful function besides allowing media companies to stay afloat. They keep you aware of new products and services relevant to your industry. All ads in Quality Digest apply directly to products and services that most of our readers need. You won’t see automobile or health supplement ads. So please consider turning off your ad blocker for our site. Thanks, Denise Robitaille is the author of thirteen books, including: ISO 9001:2015 Handbook for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses. She is chair of PC302, the project committee responsible for the revision to ISO 19011, an active member of USTAG to ISO/TC 176 and technical expert on the working group that developed the current version of ISO 9004:2018. She has participated internationally in standards development for over 15 years. She is a globally recognized speaker and trainer. Denise is a Fellow of the American Society for Quality and an Exemplar Global certified lead assessor and an ASQ certified quality auditor. As principal of Robitaille Associates, she has helped many companies achieve ISO 9001 registration and to improve their quality management systems. She has conducted training courses for thousands of individuals on such topics as auditing, corrective action, document control, root cause analysis, and implementing ISO 9001. Among Denise’s books are: 9 Keys to Successful Audits, The (Almost) Painless ISO 9001:2015 Transition and The Corrective Action Handbook. She is a frequent contributor to several quality periodicals.Helping Your Suppliers Help You
If you don’t, who will?
A few months ago, I wrote about the importance of understanding your customers’ requirements. We looked at requirements that exceed the traditional scope of product specifications such as labeling, packaging and documentation.This month, we’ll take a look at how we communicate our requirements to our suppliers, which is the flipside of the customer-supplier relationship. Consider how frustrating it is for you when a customer complains that you haven’t delivered the product they anticipated and you realize there were several expectations that hadn’t been adequately defined. The situation is awkward because you both know that, first, the customer didn’t clearly state the requirement, and second, you made some inappropriate assumption due to the lack of clarity. In other words, you guessed.
Ensure that you understand how your vendor’s Web site works. The increase in efficiency that both parties enjoy through the advent of e-commerce is sometimes offset by the loss of that “personal touch.” You can’t easily override items such as minimum order value or standard-sized packaging. If the vendor’s Web site states that orders processed after 2 p.m. will go out the following day, then you can’t expect overnight delivery if you order something at 2:15 p.m. Being aware of the constraints ahead of time diminishes the risk of disappointment caused by unanticipated contingencies.
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Denise Robitaille
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