The Ultimate Supplier Qualification Guide

Managing third-party risk, preventing costly safety incidents, eliminating disruptions in supply, and protecting your company’s brand are all important – and so partnering with qualified suppliers that meet your safety, sustainability, quality, and insurance requirements is essential to meeting these objectives.

You outsource certain functions to third-party suppliers, which may include material and equipment suppliers, contractors, and vendors, to effectively handle fluctuating needs. In many cases, they can deliver better quality skills and materials at reduced costs when compared to in-house operations. For the same reasons, you should consider partnering with an expert third-party partner to manage your supplier qualification program.

Operating a thorough and sustainable supplier qualification program involves a great deal of administrative work, effective document storage, and constant engagement with all your suppliers to obtain the required information, verify and audit that data, and keep it up to date. For many companies, building and maintaining an in-house supplier qualification program falls on multiple roles across departments such as procurement, health and safety, risk management, operations, and others.

When multiple departments are responsible for screening suppliers, the related information is often handled in different ways. For example, one person might use an excel spread sheet, and another might store physical documents in a filing cabinet.

With decentralization, assessments are often inconsistent, documents aren’t easily accessible, and complete visibility is nearly impossible – especially when qualifying suppliers is just one of several job tasks competing for attention. In addition, pressure to move multiple projects forward can put an enormous strain on your internal resources. These factors combined create a perfect storm that inevitably result in exposure to unseen risk.