Among the possible problems that we may have with our suppliers are basically (since there may be more), the following:
- Delay in responding to requests (be it a quote, product delivery or response to a service).
- What we request is not what they quoted us, or worse, it is not what they send us or obtain.
- The agreements are "forgotten".
- The supports or services are not those agreed.
- Etc.
Although there could be many problems that exist, the solution is simple, " Monitoring and Control ", these 2 concepts are an excellent combination to reduce or avoid all these problems.
Preparing to work with the provider
We must always keep in mind that we must have all our suppliers ordered and cataloged, a very complete database of these, from the company in general, that they sell, what are their best products, what favorable and unfavorable results have we had (this is very important, to know and record the causes of the failures), even our account executive, who is the visible face of the company. If we are dealing with a completely new company, they can start with the article "Selection of suppliers"
The first thing is to define our baseline, a benchmark, what we expect as results, this will allow us to measure progress, evaluate performance, know how the provider is regarding requests and response to our needs.
To facilitate our work and the creation of the baseline, we can use the following parameters Time, Cost, Quality, Reach, also with these we decrease the variables to follow and control. For simplicity we will understand:
Time: Amount of time we have to complete our objective, that is, from the request to the supplier to the closing of the business (including supports, services, others).
Cost: Budget amount (data reserved only for us), the willingness to pay for the product and / or service.
Quality: assurance of the expected quality of the product or service.
Scope: Definition of what we are supposed to achieve and a specific description of what the final product or service should be or perform.
In these 4 parameters we must be clear since with them we will measure the progress of our supplier.
We must always consider margins in these parameters, slack over time and costs, as well as flexibility in quality and scope, since in many cases these variables are inversely proportional.
Consider the following:
If it is good and cheap
it will not be fast.
If it is good and fast
it will not be cheap.
If it is fast and cheap
it will not be good.
We must find a balance between these parameters or favor those that interest us, otherwise we will be frustrated by not achieving what is expected.
Being clear about all of the above, we can start the provider's “monitoring and control”.
Working with the provider (Monitoring and control)
Our starting point is when we contact the supplier (with our base line created and tuned), it is here that we begin with our monitoring and control.
What we want to achieve with the monitoring and control of suppliers. With the monitoring we will collect data of the times, if the requirements are being met (scope), warm, costs, with these data we can apply the control that will allow us to guide the supplier if necessary.
For monitoring we can use some procedures, for example:
- Have a blog, where we write down each action (dates, responses, changes, etc.) that is performed.
- Every time we receive information from the provider, value, brands, service times, contracts, we must compare them with our base line, we can tabulate them and incorporate them into a decision matrix, always taking into account the slack and flexibility, as well as defining which one of the parameters is essential.
We apply the control to correct the supplier's deviations from our baseline, detected in the follow-up, each correction must be reported to the supplier to make the requested adjustments, a very important tip for this is "if it is not written (mail, memorandum, etc.), does not exist ”.
The monitoring and control must be repeated as many times as necessary to achieve our baseline (taking into account the slack and flexibility), however, depending on the "dimension" of what we are requesting, the times we apply the controls (changes and adjustments) should be limited by the time we have for the solution. If one of the suppliers falls in the case of not approaching what was requested after the limit of controls, it is clear that we must remove it, but if all fall in this case, it is clear that the definition of our baseline is BAD.
Just to clarify, the concepts used are not new, each of these are widely used in what is the " Planning, monitoring and control of projects ", what has been done in this document, is to use them in what is the relationship with suppliers.
In summary
What should be taken into account for the monitoring and control of suppliers is the following:
- Organize and identify our suppliers that satisfy our solution.
- Have our baseline, well defined and clear.
- Define flexibility and ease, so as not to fall into frustration.
- Keep a constant monitoring.
- Maintain constant control, but limited by time.
- Know how to identify suppliers in a timely manner that do not have the expected response capacity, according to the established parameters.
- Accept if we have made a mistake in creating the baseline and correct it.
