One area of commonality that has historically made this a difficult task is the lack of new suppliers.
Today’s is a short post from Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing in response to a customers question.
There is a proper way to insure the sustainability of your strategic sourcing or reverse auction events going forward. Since you have already conducted or should have conducted your detailed discovery and analysis, a robust supplier database should permit you to do the following.
1. Conduct a detailed supplier discovery
a. Rank suppliers by
i. Size
ii. Experience
iii. References
iv. Environmental certifications
v. Safety Certifications
vi. Coverage area
2. Develop a three year supplier game plan
a. Develop a three year time line for all categories
b. Identify suppliers for each event over the three years
c. Develop a three year supplier rotation schedule for those suppliers.
3. Role play internally each year for a test category
a. Ask the following questions
i. Who will you invite and why
ii. Keep in mind the unique benefits of distributors and manufacturers
iii. Discuss award the business strategies
iv. Review alternative scenarios
v. Review impact on non awarded suppliers
vi. Determine which suppliers will be invited back and why
vii. Determine what new suppliers from your database search will be invited next year.
If you’d like some help building this into a process that will work over and over again, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative.
We look forward to and appreciate your comments.
