Why are Suppliers Important?
Today, the total quality approach and the establishment of quality assurance systems have become very widespread. In terms of providing quality at the source, supplier companies constitute the first link of the chain. Regardless of their size and size, all enterprises have to purchase the necessary raw materials, semi-finished products, parts, subsystems and some materials or some services. Purchasers include services in the field of services such as consulting, advertising, cleaning, courier services and catering.
For all these businesses, the quality of products and services is directly related to the quality of the suppliers and their products and services. An important point of quality systems is that without input quality, finished product quality cannot be mentioned. Therefore, suppliers must be fully integrated into the processes of the enterprise. There are suppliers at one end of the business processes. At the other end are customers. While the company in between provides the demands of the customers from the supplier companies, it also has to share the feedbacks coming from the customers with the supplier companies. In the process of developing a product or service, there is a cooperation between the enterprise and the supplier company.
Quality of conformity is the measure of meeting the product and service criteria required to meet customer needs and expectations of the enterprise and supplier companies. After determining the product or service characteristics with the design works, the company starts to negotiate with the supplier companies. In simple terms, the flow is as follows: customers identify their requirements, the business determines the characteristics of the business based on these requirements and informs the supplier, then the product or service received from the supplier is compared with the customer's expectations and compliance is ensured, then the business is delivered to the customer.
Performance quality is the determination of the performance levels of the company's products or services in the market by various methods (such as customer research, sales or service analysis). According to the quality experts, it is important for the supplier companies to have good relations with the enterprises in which they do business, both in terms of self-improvement and in the development of the products or services they produce. There should be a continuous dialogue between them, relationships should be established on solid foundations, data collection and measurements should be performed and certain rules should be followed in terms of quality improvement methods.
Working with supplier companies has an important place in the activities of the enterprise and the required products or services should be obtained in the expected quality, in the desired quantity, in the desired time, at the appropriate cost and from the desired source. For these reasons, suppliers are important and must be kept under control.
The expectations of the companies from the supplier companies are as follows:
- Products and services should be shipped on demand
- The enterprise must meet the requirements with zero error
- Should be cost effective
- Must be of good quality and delivered on time
- If there is a problem with the supplier, they must be solved without affecting the customer's demands.
- Processes of suppliers should be controlled with statistical process control techniques
- Suppliers should develop recommendations regarding the delivery of products to the customer and which will affect the processes
Supplier Audits
In order for the supplier company audits to be healthy and successful, first of all, a management system such as ISO 9001 Quality Management System should be applied in the enterprise. The quality of a purchased product or service is the most important factor that determines the quality of the business's products or services. Therefore, it is important to have a solid infrastructure in the enterprise. The timely, high quality and desired features of the supply, the same way to the business of its customers to provide quality products and services will provide.
In this respect, it is very important to audit the suppliers that directly affect the quality of products and services and to evaluate them in accordance with the determined performance monitoring criteria. The performance evaluation methods and supplier evaluation process to be determined by the enterprises generally deal with the supplier companies in two different aspects: the candidate suppliers to be procured for the first time with the products and services, and the supplier companies in which the products and services are procured. Companies that have ISO 9001 Quality Management System certificate do not purchase products or services from any supplier company. Supplier companies must meet certain conditions. For this reason, both the selection of new suppliers and working with the existing suppliers are performed.
In order to obtain the expected benefit from the audits of the supplier companies, the existing documentation must necessarily include the auditing process. In order not to miss any points during the audits, the audits are carried out on the basis of the prepared checklists.
In addition, when determining the new supplier companies and evaluating the existing supplier companies, the enterprise should have a pre-prepared evaluation table. A scoring should be made on the basis of certain criteria such as product and service quality, delivery time, price, payment method and whether or not it has ISO 9001 Quality Management System certificate. There is no single solution to what these criteria will be and how to calculate the score. They mostly change according to the organizational structure of the enterprises, their fields of activity and the perspective of management. However, the essence of the supplier evaluation process is to determine the principles and responsibilities that will be applied when selecting suppliers or evaluating the suppliers.
Supplier audits are generally carried out under the following main factors:
- Verification of Quality Management System applications (audit of applications, traceability, adequacy of documentation management, material supply and material management suitability, process and quality control points, calibration equipment and non-compliance and continuous improvement activities to ensure quality product and service delivery)
- Verification of technical capacity (necessary infrastructure, offices and facilities, qualification and engineering competence, design competence)
- Determination of production capacity (employee qualifications, special process equipment and qualifications)
