Does anyone have an example of a cover letter for a supplier questioaire? We are sending a supplier questionaire(evaluation) to all of our suppliers, we don't want to scare them off by making them think we are considering looking for other suppliers. We need to do this to conform to our QMS. All of our suppliers will be grandfathered in, but we need to do a supplier evaluation of all our suppliers and that will include this questionaire.

Does anyone have an example of a cover letter for a supplier questioaire? We are sending a supplier questionaire(evaluation) to all of our suppliers, we don't want to scare them off by making them think we are considering looking for other suppliers. We need to do this to conform to our QMS. All of our suppliers will be grandfathered in, but we need to do a supplier evaluation of all our suppliers and that will include this questionaire.

Just out of curiousity, if the results of the evaluation are a foregone conclusion, why are you doing it?

I moved your post to the Supplier Quality Assurance board.



Take a look at this thread for an examples.

http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=14056

I'm with Jim. If you are not adding any value, why do it? There is nothing in the standard that says "the organization shall send out supplier questionaires in order to comply with supplier evaluation portion of the standard".

When you stop to think about it, just what value do you get? Now, if you want to ask each of your suppliers if they are certified/registered to any quality managment system and get their registrar/registration number for your supplier database, that is one thing. But when was the last time you saw a questionaire that returned looking like this:

Q. Do you identify and control product to prevent its unintended use or delivery?
A. No, we ship everything, we just hope that if it isn't what you wanted, you won't notice, or at least won't complain about it?

Do not fall into the trap of thinking just because someone else sends out a questionaire that everyone in the world must do the same. Make your system work for you, not vice versa.

Does anyone have an example of a cover letter for a supplier questioaire? We are sending a supplier questionaire(evaluation) to all of our suppliers, we don't want to scare them off by making them think we are considering looking for other suppliers. We need to do this to conform to our QMS. All of our suppliers will be grandfathered in, but we need to do a supplier evaluation of all our suppliers and that will include this questionaire.

What about something like:

Dear Vendor,

Please see attached a supplier survey. You are kindly requested to provide truthful answers to the information requested. If you lie or mis-represent your capabilities, you will be forced to endure terrible punishment, such as listening to 4 hours straight of Fado songs.

You will be grandfathered as a valued supplier in our system. So, please (pretty please) be honest. That is the least you can do.

Sincerely,

Just out of curiosity, if the results of the evaluation are a foregone conclusion, why are you doing it? Jim and his tough, pointed questions. :agree1:

We had another exchange on this subject in this thread. (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?p=119015)

What about something like:

Jim and his tough, pointed questions. :agree1:

We had another exchange on this subject in this thread. (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?p=119015)

I had to look up Fado (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fado) to see what you were referring to. No disrespect intended to our Portuguese friends, but I'll fill out the questionnaire, thank you. :D

I had to look up Fado (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fado) to see what you were referring to. No disrespect intended to our Portuguese friends, but I'll fill out the questionnaire, thank you. :DPeople can have a glimpse, by listening to this short sample. (http://www.emusic.com/samples/m3u/song/10597076/11179403.m3u) I assume no responsibility for possible damages. :lol:

Just out of curiousity, if the results of the evaluation are a foregone conclusion, why are you doing it?

Where I am employeed there is no evidence that any kind of evaluation was ever done so the purpose of this questionaire is to find out if these suppliers are registered, or what type of quality system they have in place. There has never been any type of audit done. Our purchasing agent just picked suppliers out of the phonebook or used suppliers on a referral. We our doing our own evaluation based on cost, quality, and delivery. I was interested in knowing if anyone used a cover letter for an example for us, because our purchasing agent doesn't want to make our suppliers go into a panic that we will look for different suppliers based on us sending them this questionaire. Our customers want to see some evidence that we are monitoring our suppliers. We have been using the same suppliers for up to 30 years but we have no evidence of receiving inspections,audits, certificates, or anything to put these suppliers on a approved supplier list. Our customers want to see a approved supplier list.

Instead of calling it a vendor evaluation, why not call it a vendor self-audit? I do it all the time and we have never had a vendor get nervous from it.

I am still waiting to see if anyone fails this audit....:bonk:

Where I am employeed there is no evidence that any kind of evaluation was ever done so the purpose of this questionaire is to find out if these suppliers are registered, or what type of quality system they have in place. There has never been any type of audit done. Our purchasing agent just picked suppliers out of the phonebook or used suppliers on a referral. We our doing our own evaluation based on cost, quality, and delivery. I was interested in knowing if anyone used a cover letter for an example for us, because our purchasing agent doesn't want to make our suppliers go into a panic that we will look for different suppliers based on us sending them this questioaire. Our customers want to see some evidence that we are monitoring our suppliers. We have been using the same suppliers for up to 30 years but we have no evidence of receiving inspections,audits, certificates, or anything to put these suppliers on a approved supplier list

That's kind of what I thought. Unless your customers are asking you to do questionnaires, and since you've already decided to go the "grandfather" route, it's entirely reasonable (to me at least :cool: ) to formally grandfather suppliers based on past performance (the only reliable indicator of future performance) and use surveys or questionnaires for future qualifications. If you really have to do surveys of current suppliers, just tell them that you appreciate their contributions, and look forward to doing more business in the future, but you need to update your records. Short and simple.

Dear Valued Supplier,

As a part of our Quality System, we have elected to document information about all suppliers' quality system. As a current supplier, you will be grandfathered into our supplier base, but we would like to know whether you are ISO 9001 registered. Please note that if you are registered, you need only to fill out the first X sections of the questionaire and return with a copy of your ISO 9001 certificate as directed within the survey.

Thank you for your cooperation. We look forward to a long and productive relationship with your company.

Sincerely,
I. Justgotta Ask
QA Manager, ACME Products.


For new suppliers just include it with all the other tax/financial paperwork that has to be filled out to include them in your accounting processes.

Why not ask you suppliers if they have a standard information profile about their company to give you? We keep such a document and update it as needed. It was a recent improvement, which has resulted in a cost savings eliminating the need to inscribe the same information on different survey forms. And isn’t that what all this is about?

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