Related threads include:
purchasing-vendor evaluation
and
Subcontractor Evaluation
-----snippo-----------------
From: ISO Standards Discussion
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 12:50:28 -0600
Subject: Re: Q: Supplier Evaluation /Giede/Humphries
From: Edwin Humphries
Bill
> My questions are: Does an ongoing evaluation of suppliers satisfy
> "periodic evaluation?" If a supplier is in the database, and purchases
> can be made from the suppliers listed (purchases from "unapproved"
> suppliers can not be done, even though their name would still appear),
> would that satisfy "follow-up actions?"
This clause of the standard is one of the most frequently misunderstood and bureaucratized.
The reality is that any company that is successful has to be making some sort of on-going (= periodic) assessment of its suppliers. The all to frequent interpretation is that one must have a formal evaluation process - sometimes even an audit process - with questionnaires, schedules for reassessment, classification systems and so on. I'll invite you to read the standard and find any of these things: you won't.
The first rule of ISO implementation is to document what you do; then you look at it and find out whether, in principle, it meets the standard's requirements. If so, leave it, or at most, rephrase it so that an auditor will recognise it as conforming. If it doesn't identify the areas where there is a shortcoming, and address only those, in such a way as to support basic business objectives. Under no circumstances accept some arbitrary method of supplier assessment if it doesn't make business sense to you.
So:
1. You must have some way of ensuring that information about consistently under-performing suppliers reaches those who make supplier choices. The capture of such information is as good a form of review as any.
2. There must be some way that routine purchases from such suppliers can be prevented. This must mean some form of record, whether it is a flag in your purchasing or inventory control database or a quite separate register. This provides a record that the assessment has been done, and if it also has a date, provides some evidence of its regularity.
3. When faced with the situation, you must also have a system that evaluates the ability of a new supplier to meet the company's needs (this includes, but is not restricted to, quality; therefore, price, delivery, technical support, etc, may also be relevant - they are also company needs).
If you have all the above, document these systems, and do nothing more: a reasonable auditor should find no problem.
Best Regards
Edwin