Our Tampa office worked with the local ASQ section and Hillsborough Community College’s Institute for Corporate and Continuing Education and coordinated and instructed a series of webinars that will run through this month. The webinar scheduled for today discusses Supply Chain Management, which many in our industry recognize is a broad topic. As a brief introduction, the following components are discussed:
Supplier Selection
- Conduct a needs analysis (brainstorm and consider long-term growth expectations).
- Conduct preliminary interviews and/or surveys.
- Evaluate samples.
- Perform on-site audits (general quality systems management, ISO based, social responsibility, security, etc.).
- Use a grid analysis for objective decision making.
Supplier Evaluation (Performance)
- Conduct pre-production, in-process and final pre-shipment inspections.
- Trend the data and incentivize based on performance.
- Perform regular audits.
- Develop a rating system.
- Examples include no rating, quality rating only, quality & delivery rating (graphic method), quality & delivery method (cost index method) and a comprehensive method .
Supplier Partnerships
- Share information – Communication and transparency are key.
- Know and understand goals, vision and capabilities.
- Incorporate training.
- Develop supplier rewards associated with specific criteria.
Supplier Improvement (Corrective Action)
- Define, evaluate, implement, document and review results.
- Seeks to eliminate the causes of nonconformities in order to prevent recurrence – Resolves product manufacturing issues.
- Incorporates corrective action investigation, corrective action planning and corrective action verification.
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