Supplier assessment made easier with AM System

How to carry out a supplier assessment

If you are responsible for hiring suppliers, you are probably also familiar with some of the challenges that come with hiring a new supplier. There are many different suppliers to choose from in most industries, so finding the best fit for your organization can seem complicated and cumbersome. However, you can make it easier by having some strategies for the assessment process, for example by preparing self-assessment templates for suppliers to fill in themselves. You can have them tell you everything from which ISO standards they comply with and whether they have procedures to continuously improve their work, to whether they measure their customer satisfaction in any way and what requirements they place on their respective subcontractors.

For example, you can conduct a supplier assessment to:

• You want to evaluate the financial strength of the supplier
• You want to investigate whether the supplier has quality management systems and procedures that meet the quality you require from a supplier
• You want to know how good the supplier's delivery performance and accuracy are.

By having all the suppliers you find interesting fill in the same assessment, it will be easier for you and your colleagues to get an overview of the suppliers and compare them with each other. It will quickly become clear which ones meet your requirements and which ones don't, and the choice of supplier will be much easier. If a supplier assessment produces a good result that leads to a partnership, it is still important to continue to investigate and develop that work, ideally on an annual basis.

Supplier assessment under ISO 9001

ISO 9001, ISO 140001 and OHSAS 18001 are three certifications that all require supplier assessments to be carried out before you engage a supplier, and to be followed up annually. The advantage of having an annual discussion with your suppliers is that you can ensure that the same rules still apply, set new requirements if necessary, and perhaps change suppliers if the partnership does not seem to be working well.

ISO 9001 is one of several standards that signal how well an organization is performing at different levels. ISO 9001 is about how quality work in an organization looks like. Other examples are ISO 14001, which deals with environmental work, and OHSAS 18001, which deals with work environment management.

By using AM Systems' management system, you can be certified in several different standards and thus demonstrate that the work you do is of high quality. Standards such as ISO 9001 are used all over the world and organizations that are certified to them often have an advantage over others, as the certifications indicate that they take their work very seriously and want to improve.

Evaluate suppliers digitally with AM System

In AM System's case management solution, you can create a supplier assessment template tailored to your organization. You send the template to suppliers, who fill it in digitally. When they confirm that they have completed it, you will receive a notification in the program and by email, so you don't forget to check the assessment. The assessment is automatically saved in the program and you can open it to review it whenever you want. If you wish, you can set reminders in the program when it's time to do a follow-up or new assessment, so you can continue to comply with ISO requirements.

As supplier assessments often mean that you have to manage information from several different suppliers at the same time, it helps if you can have all their information digitally. Not only does it take up less space on your bookshelf, but it is also easily accessible to others involved in the assessment. Plus, you don't have to wait for an assessment to be printed out, filled in by hand and sent back to you, without anyone having to spend time on time-consuming tasks like looking for a working pen. You'll get the information you need to make a decision quickly, smoothly and without unnecessary intermediaries.