Survey

When is it less favorable to obtain quotes or sealed bids when you have no clear product or service specification?

When you have no price forecast or budget.
When you don't know of any capable suppliers.
When no purchase has been approved.
When there is no advantage in obtaining competitive bids.
Where any cost saving would be insignificant.
None are favorable.

Records should be kept of the number of quality and delivery problems. The percentage of rejections or o..." />

The Key to Controlling Quality and Delivery

Date: 08/01/2007

Records should be kept of the number of quality and delivery problems. The percentage of rejections or off schedule deliveries compared with the total number of placed orders gives an objective measurement of supplier performance. Depending on memory or a gut feel of performance is not professional and is often misleading because of bias for one reason or another.

Each year for the past several years, questions on the Society’s annual benchmarking survey asked for the percentage of rejections or late shipments experienced. A great many respondents did not answer these questions. We can only assume it was because the information was not readily available.

If purchasing and its associated activities are to be viewed as truly professional hard data must be accumulated and used rather than vague impressions or beliefs.

In the past it was difficult and costly to record, analyze, and report purchasing activities except by large organizations with large staffs. Today with computer access on practically every desk each employee has the power to gather information and use it to obtain better results.

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