Entries tagged as supplier selection

We continue our discussion about supplier selection process. This time we are going to review the criteria by which you should evaluate suppliers to select the right one. There are many potential criteria, we will focus on major ones:

Reliability, Financial Stability, Quality and Continuous Improvement, Competitive Pricing, On-time delivery, Customer Service and Communication,  Informative and functional Website, Approach to Partnership, Environmental Record, Corporate Social Responsibility. 

If you are a small business and do not have a formal methodology to select suppliers you need at least to be familiar with these criteria.

Most business owners, who truly know  the ins and outs of running a successful enterprise, are constantly working on developing plans – aimed at growing their business and, of course, by extension, their revenues and profit margins. Thanks to today’s fast paced world, it is impossible for any business to stand still – if they do, they die and, of course, looking towards the international markets is definitely the next step in global ownership.

If you are in the business of selecting suppliers, especially from developing countries, UK Customs Office did a lot of work to try and help you. Business Link is an impressive set of guides from export and import basics to specific supplier selection process. Many of the topics are UK specific and deal with UK taxes. But most are general purpose explanations on the topics of starting a business, finance and international trade.

 

As a part of the international trade discussions they provide guides that can be very helpful if you are new to importing goods from overseas. This blog post will focus on a part of supplier selection process. By no means is this a comprehensive guide but it provides a great foundation for someone who is new and has no much experience.

Anyone who rode the "tube" in London would certainly recognize this phrase. You have to mind the gap between the station platform and the metro wagon when entering or exiting the train in order to avoid falling in between. We can easily use the same phrase when it comes to sourcing, selecting suppliers and buying goods from overseas companies. Why? Because there is a huge gap of supplier performance data for companies overseas that no technology can bridge today. The problem is especially acute when we are talking about small and medium size companies that cannot afford spending countless dollars on supplier selection but are faced with the tough realities of dwindling customer demand and the push to reduce prices.