Sometimes you don’t have to search too far in order to deliver some cost savings and supply chain improvements, such as lead times and quality.
Here’s a quick and leisurely read for you: our top five tips to get the most out of your supplier relationship. Enjoy 🙂
Make sure your supplier is more like a partner
A good supplier goes above and beyond for you. It’s really important to invest in the relationship with your supply chain and a good supplier will understand your business and your objectives… and do its best to help you meet them. It’s about give and take, so you need to invest in them for them to invest in you. Make sure you share with your supplier base your strategic objectives so they’re aligned with your goals.
Regular meetings and reviews
Part of the two-way investment should involve regular meetings and reviews. Make sure you find time for your supplier – even when things are going well – so you can share important company updates, new directions and other important communication. Likewise, there is always room for improvement and opportunities to make quality better and to find cost savings. This can be achieved through regular reviews. Ideally you should be speaking to your supplier monthly and reviewing performance quarterly.
Ask your supplier for guidance and advice
Get more from your supply chain by engaging your suppliers in your procurement processes. Whether it’s to do with new product innovation, recruiting new suppliers or anything in between, ask the advice of your trusted suppliers. Suppliers are often a great source of knowledge for many processes and applications and they often have a very solid network for suppliers and contacts, because it’s essential they work with the very best in order to deliver the best to their own customer base. They can usually recommend to you other trusted suppliers.
Ensure your supplier has high quality standards
Choose a supplier with high quality standards and proven certification.
Manufacturers who work to higher quality standards not only give you peace of mind, but they ensure consistency of your supply chain. Ask them to take you through their quality measures and processes. When the quality is on point, you are saving your business time and money, and maintaining high standards.
Get more from your existing supplier
What else can your existing supplier do for you? Make it your business to discover more about what they do – often you don’t have to look too far to make cost savings and other benefits, by asking your current suppliers to do more for you.
If you’d like to find out more about ENL or discover how we can help you with any of your projects, please get in touch
