Supplier Management In QHSE Management System
In any business, there are suppliers. We have all experienced a number of good suppliers, along with some challenging ones. To maintain a high-quality service or product, it is necessary to manage these suppliers, resolve any issues, audit them, and analyze the results. There are many different ways to manage and analyze these suppliers or subcontractors, which we look at below. Let’s go further on supplier management in QHSE.
Needs for Good Supplier Management
Good supplier management is essential for your company to succeed. It ensures that you get the best possible products your company needs. You need to be able to ensure that your customers receive the highest level of service from your suppliers. This means that you need to know exactly what they are doing so that you can make sure that they are delivering on time and with the correct materials.
Selecting Suppliers
The first thing in selecting trusted suppliers is having clear and measurable selection criteria. Create a list of criteria the supplier needs to fulfill before even considering the company as a supplier. Some criteria can be:
- Quality of product/service
- Are there clear quality checks?
- Skilled personnel
- Check the employee’s certification.
- Time management
- How is the delivery time?
- Do they come up with acceptable time frames and stick to them?
- Communication
- Do they communicate when something is off?
- Is there a clear way of communication?
These criteria can be checked via an audit or a pilot purchase. It is important to carry out some tests before making the supplier a critical supplier. The trial purchase can give a good feeling of the quality of the supplier. During the selection process, try to avoid the five most common mistakes.
Managing Suppliers
When the supplier has been selected, it is important to have a clear method to track your critical supplier. Define KPIs, track them on a fixed time frame and make sure the supplier gets insight in them. Some KPIs can be:
- On time delivery
- Failure of incoming quality checks
- Failure of on time communication in case of delay
Of course there can be a lot of different KPIs, but just create two or three and manage them. An overload of KPIs will only make it more confusing. These KPIs can be easily changed. Online quality management systems make it very easy to keep track of these KPIs.
Specialized Supplier Management Software
A way to manage your suppliers is to implement a supplier management software solution. These solutions are developed specifically to address the needs of businesses like yours. A supplier management software solution (for example Gatekeeper Vendor Portal or Precoro) offers many benefits, including:
- Better control over your supplier relationships – Supplier management software allows you to track your supplier performance and monitor activities. This gives you better insight into your relationship with your suppliers.
- Improved communication – With a supplier management software solution, you can communicate more effectively with your suppliers. You can send messages, reminders, invoices, statements, and other important information to your suppliers via email, text message, phone call, or fax.
- Increased productivity – Supplier management software improves efficiency by automating repetitive tasks. You can automate processes such as purchasing, inventory tracking, payroll, billing, customer support, order fulfillment, and others.
The missing part in this particular software is the integration with other quality-related data. Combining data from a production batch with suppliers’ products is often not applicable in some supplier management software.
Integrate Supplier Management With a QHSE Management Platform
A specialized supplier management solution is ideal when you can integrate supplier data with other quality-related data. There are some software solutions with open APIs, which can communicate with QHSE management software. This way, you get to make better decisions based on data from different sources.
Some QHSE management platforms have an integrated supplier management functionality. Having supplier management integrated on a QHSE management platform has the benefit of having diverse data from one source. A QHSE management platform integrates all aspects of Quality, Health & Safety, Environmental and Sustainability (QHSE) into a single platform. Using a QHSE management system means that you get access to all relevant data about your company.
This includes data about your employees, suppliers, product, materials, assets, facilities, safety records, environmental records, and more. All this data can be accessed through a single interface and combined to improve the QHSE within the organization.
No matter which system you use, making data-driven decisions is what you should be aiming for. Improving the quality standards, getting awareness of risk, improving suggestions, and getting the complete picture, all based on data is a plus for us. You should choose which way of managing the supplier fits your organization best.
