Buyers selecting suppliers to establish strategic partnerships, controlling relationship risks between the two parties, and developing dynamic supplier evaluation systems are several issues that Chinese buyers are generally concerned about. As the proportion of procurement to sales revenue continues to grow, procurement has gradually become a key factor in determining the success or failure of electronics manufacturers. As the basis and prerequisite for the normal operation of the supply chain, supplier evaluation and selection is becoming the hottest topic among enterprises.
There are many standards for selecting suppliers, which are divided according to the length of time and can be divided into short-term standards and long-term standards. When determining the criteria for selecting suppliers, short-term criteria and long-term criteria must be considered. Combining the two can make the selected criteria more comprehensive, and then use the criteria to evaluate suppliers and ultimately find the ideal supplier. The main short-term criteria for selecting suppliers are: suitable product quality, low price level, timely delivery and good overall service level.
Appropriate product quality
The quality of purchased goods that meets the requirements of the purchasing unit is the first condition that the purchasing unit must consider when purchasing goods. For goods of poor quality and low price, although the purchase cost is low, it will lead to an increase in the total cost of the enterprise. Because products with substandard quality will often affect the continuity of production and the quality of finished products during the process of being put into use by the enterprise, which will eventually be reflected in the total cost.
On the contrary, too high quality does not mean that the purchased items are suitable for enterprise production. If the quality is too high and far exceeds the quality required for production, it is also a waste for the enterprise. Therefore, the quality requirements in procurement must meet the needs of the company's production. It is wrong to require too high or too low.
Lower costs
Cost includes not only the purchase price, but also all expenditures incurred during the use of raw materials or parts. Low purchase price is an important condition for selecting suppliers. However, the supplier with the lowest price is not necessarily the most suitable, because if the product quality and delivery time cannot meet the requirements, or the transportation cost increases due to the geographical distance, the total cost will increase, so the total cost will be the lowest. This is an important factor to consider when choosing a supplier.
Timely delivery
Whether the supplier can organize the supply according to the agreed delivery time and delivery conditions directly affects the continuity of the enterprise's production, so the delivery time is also the choice of supply. One of the factors to consider when doing business.
Enterprises need to pay attention to two aspects when considering delivery time: First, they must reduce the inventory quantity of raw materials or parts used in production, thereby reducing inventory occupancy funds, and other inventory-related costs. Various expenses:
The second is to reduce the risk of material outages and shutdowns and ensure the continuity of production. Combining these two aspects, the requirements for timely delivery should be as follows: whenever the user needs it, When is the delivery time, it is neither late nor early, very punctual.
The overall service level is good
The supplier's overall service level refers to the supplier's ability and attitude to cooperate with the buyer in all aspects of its internal operations. The main indicators for evaluating the overall service level of suppliers include the following aspects. If the purchaser does not know how to use the purchased items, the supplier has the responsibility to train the purchaser on the use of the products sold.
The supplier’s pre-sale and post-sale training will also greatly affect the purchaser’s choice of supplier.
Installation services: Through installation services, buyers can shorten the time required for equipment to be put into production or put into operation. Repair services. Free maintenance protects the interests of the buyer and also imposes higher quality requirements on the products provided by the supplier. In this way, suppliers will find ways to improve product quality and avoid or reduce free maintenance;
Technical support services: If the supplier provides corresponding technical support to the buyer, it can solve the problem for the buyer. Problems while selling your own products. For example, in the information age, products are updated very quickly. Technical support such as free or paid upgrade services provided by suppliers is very attractive to buyers and reflects the competitiveness of suppliers. The long-term criteria for selecting suppliers are mainly to evaluate whether the supplier can guarantee long-term and stable supply, whether its production capacity can be relatively expanded in line with the company's growth, whether the future development direction of its products meets the company's needs, and whether it has long-term Willingness to cooperate, etc.
The long-term criteria for selecting suppliers mainly consider the following four aspects: Whether the supplier's internal organization is complete
The supplier's internal organization and management are related to future supplier supply efficiency and service quality. If the supplier's organizational structure is chaotic, the efficiency and quality of procurement will decrease, and supply activities may not be completed in a timely and high-quality manner due to conflicts between supplier departments.
Whether the supplier’s quality management system is sound
When buyers evaluate whether a supplier meets the requirements, an important step is to see whether the supplier adopts a corresponding quality system. Quality and Management, for example, whether it has passed the IS09000 quality system certification, whether the internal staff has completed all work in accordance with the quality system without compromise, and whether its quality level has met the requirements stipulated by the internationally recognized IS09000.
Whether the supplier's internal machinery and equipment are advanced and how well they are maintained. From the newness and maintenance status of the supplier's machinery and equipment, we can see how much managers attach importance to production machines and product quality, as well as how good internal management is. bad. If the machinery and equipment in the workshop are old and there is a lot of dust and oil on the machines, it is difficult to imagine that the company can produce qualified products. Whether the financial status of the supplier is stable.
The financial status of the supplier directly affects its delivery and performance performance. If there are problems with the supplier's finances and poor turnover, it will affect the supply and thus the performance of the contract. Enterprise production is even facing a serious crisis of shutdown.
Different companies will take different steps when selecting suppliers, but the basic steps should include the following aspects.
Establish an evaluation team
Enterprises must establish a team to control and implement supplier evaluation. Team members come from purchasing, production, finance, technology, marketing and other departments. Team members must have teamwork spirit and certain professional skills. The evaluation team must be supported by the top leadership of both the manufacturer and supplier companies.
Determine the list of all suppliers
Understand the suppliers in the market who can provide the required items through the supplier information database, purchasing personnel, sales personnel, or industry magazines, websites and other media channels .
List the evaluation indicators to determine the weight
The criteria for selecting suppliers have been discussed in detail above. In the short-term standard and the long-term standard, the importance of each evaluation indicator is different for different parties. Businesses are different. Therefore, for different enterprises, the weight design of evaluation indicators should also be different. Evaluating suppliers: One of the main tasks of evaluating suppliers is to investigate and collect information about the supplier's production operations and other aspects. On the basis of collecting supplier information, certain tools and technical methods can be used. The evaluation of suppliers consists of two procedures: one is preliminary screening of suppliers; the other is on-site inspection of suppliers.
When conducting preliminary screening of suppliers, the first task is to use a unified and standard supplier registration form to manage the information provided by suppliers.
This information should include the supplier’s registration place, registered capital, main shareholder structure, production site, equipment, personnel, main products, main customers, production capacity, etc. By analyzing this information, we can evaluate its process capabilities, supply stability, resource reliability, and overall competitiveness.
Among these suppliers, after eliminating those that are obviously not suitable for further cooperation, a supplier inspection list can be drawn. Next, it is crucial to arrange an on-site visit to the supplier. When necessary, the quality department and process engineers can be invited to participate in the audit team. They will not only bring professional knowledge and experience, but their experience in auditing together will also help with communication and coordination within the company.
After comprehensively considering many important factors, each supplier can be given a comprehensive score and qualified suppliers can be selected. As a general rule, this phenomenon also exists in commercial procurement. 20% of the purchased items by quantity account for 80% of the total purchased value, and the remaining 80% of purchased items account for 20% of the total purchased value. Based on this, suppliers can be divided into key suppliers and ordinary suppliers, with the former accounting for 20% of the quantity and 80% of the supply value, and the same for the latter.
The items provided by key suppliers are generally strategic items for the company or items that require centralized procurement, such as engines and transmissions needed by automobile manufacturers, color picture tubes needed by TV manufacturers, etc.
Purchasing companies should spend 80% of their energy cooperating with them to ensure the production of their own products. Items provided by ordinary suppliers have less impact on the company's production operations, such as office supplies and maintenance spare parts. Companies only need to devote 20% of their energy to following up on their deliveries.
Of course, the actual situation is not so detailed, and the 28-year relationship is not static. For laymen, this is also a revelation: if you want to be respected, you have to use 80% of your energy to squeeze into the 20% of the crowd.