Reviewing a pool of suppliers and shortlisting them for strategic partnerships is one of the most significant decisions by any supply chain and procurement management team. Here, we provide you a quick checklist to use while assessing vendors for a strategic supplier partnership.
1. Quality of Service
Ultimately, an enterprise needs a top-of-the-line service/product from its long-term vendors. Therefore, you need to assess and ensure that a vendor you get into a strategic partnership with must offer premium quality with full accountability. Otherwise, all the subsequent characteristics will render useless.
2. Scalability
Make sure that a vendor who wants to become a strategic partner has the capacity to scale and deliver in line with your projected future requirements.
3. Use of Technology
A strategic supplier should be tech-savvy. They must leverage relevant software applications and systems to streamline their processes. Suppliers with strong digital/technological arms can provide better services than vendors operating from a conventional setup.
4. Ethical and Regulatory Compliance
You also need to ensure that your strategic supplier takes care of every single pertinent compliance clause on both ethical and regular fronts. They should steer clear of child/bonded labor, unethical sourcing, and other relevant moral flaws. Moreover, they should be 100% compliant with the directives of relevant regulatory bodies (GCC, CE, GMP, etc.)
5. Proactive Approach
It is tricky to assess a supplier for this attribute. Try to opt for partnerships with suppliers who have actively shown interest in the corporation and are willing to listen to and entertain your recommendations and requirements.
