Hi all,
I got confused bet. the real diff. between supplier or vendors
and if they both need evaluation or not
and if they both need it, if it will be the same !!!!!
and what is the preferred crieteria for sending the evaluation (by fixed time or if they reach a certain cost or what......)

Another question too (I think it is the most important one)
What can I do with the sole suppliers or vendors
Do I have to send them too an evaluation or it will be meaning less

thanks all in advance

No difference. Vendor is an 'old' term. People tend to use the term supplier these days.

Yes - You have to do a supplier evaluation of some sort.

I worked for a company that was strick about the use of the term supplier, beacuse VEDNORS sold POPCORN at Baseball Games.

No difference. Vendor is an 'old' term. People tend to use the term supplier these days.

Yes - You have to do a supplier evaluation of some sort.


I agree with Marc. The younger people, myself included, use the term supplier. Were as people that been around for a minute still use the term vendor. But they are one in the same.

And as Marc said, Yes - You have to do an evaluation of some sort.

The level of evaluation of your suppliers should be based upon their impact of their product/service to your product. The higher the impact/importance of their product on yours, the more "complete" the evaluation should be.

What can I do with the sole suppliers or vendors
Do I have to send them too an evaluation or it will be meaning less



I would treat sole suppliers the same as any other supplier. It won't be meaningless - it can give you a lot of info.

For example - if your supplier refuses to perform the self evaluation - you know that they may not be very interested in working with their customers. You may have trouble with them in the future on quality, price or delivery issues. In other words - you may get the attitude "you want to buy my product - here are MY terms".

I hate it when your supplier is another plant within the same organization. Depending on how upper management handles the issue, it can be a real waste. Their corrective actions can be the weakest around.... Do you think they do customer satisfaction evaluation of a 'sister' plant? Usually falls under audit radar. :frust:

Hi all,
I got confused bet. the real diff. between supplier or vendors
and if they both need evaluation or not
and if they both need it, if it will be the same !!!!!
and what is the preferred crieteria for sending the evaluation (by fixed time or if they reach a certain cost or what......)

Another question too (I think it is the most important one)
What can I do with the sole suppliers or vendors
Do I have to send them too an evaluation or it will be meaning less

thanks all in advance

There may be times when a distinction between the two terms might be useful, but not often. For example, you might want to differentiate between companies that sell things to you and the "suppliers" of internal process output. Strictly speaking, a "vendor" is one who sells things, so in that sense it's synonymous with "supplier" when the latter is someone who sells things to you. It's not synonymous, however, when talking about "internal suppliers."
Regardless, if the terms are used interchangeably in dealing with companies that sell things to you, there's not much chance that anything bad will happen.

I think there isn't any difference between the two terms.

Ok people
from what u just explained I understand that there is no differrence between both
but I was thinking that for suppliers that they are the people making any process on the product that could change its form from a shape to another.

but for vendor they are the people that considered as agents (just sellers) to an original supplier

but both of course will need evaluation
that's my understanding or I am far away from right.

Another request is anyone have a sample of supplier evaluation and its explaining criteria.

To me COCA COLA supply coke, while the vending machine is the VENDOR

So a supplier makes it and a vendor makes it available