Re: Supplier PPM Quality Defects
Pammesue-
I going to make a wild guess on the basis of your OP and also your location that you are in automotive (as I was many years ago and thankfully am no longer). If I am wrong, cheerfully ignore the rest of this post.
I was in auto back in the QS-9000 days. We had a supplier rating system similar to yours, I honestly can't recall whether it was a QS-9000 requirement or just a requirement of our own procedures. I can tell you that my subjective take on our suppliers' performance often didn't jibe with the scoring that our rating system produced. Just as a hypothetical example:
Us: "We need 5000 of these tomorrow"
Supplier: "We can give 'em to you in two weeks"
Us: "No, we need them tomorrow"
Supplier: "We'll get 'em to you tomorrow"
We get them tomorrow, and there is a non-conformity.
Us: "We found this problem"
Supplier: "We will come and pick them up, fix them, and have them back to you by the end of the day."
Us: "Great!! Thanks!!!"
They do as promised. Phone call later:
Supplier: "Everything fine now?"
Us: "Yup, great job, just one thing - you delivered 5000 bad parts and 5000 good parts, so your PPM is now 500,000. I have to take you off the approved supplier list."
You see where I'm going with this? In my opinion, there are sometimes aspects of a relationship with a business partner that cannot be objectively quantified. That's why I always say don't use metrics to beat people up, use the metrics as appropriate to help them improve in a spirit of partnership.
I once dealt with a supplier who demanded metrics on a monthly basis (disclaimer: the owner of the company became and still is a great friend of mine). The reason she wanted them wasn't for any sort of criticism as none was warranted; the company was a fantastic supplier. The reason she wanted them was so she could post them on the status board and have a perfectly good excuse to buy her employees a nice lunch.