I hope that you have enjoyed the article “Ethics & Supplier Ideas.”

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The topic of suppliers bringing cost savings ideas to the table is one I could write volumes on. In fact, it was difficult to fit a conversation about the topic into the format I use for our PurchTips articles. But as I started thinking about the topic more, I realized that I could condense some guidelines even further into some simple do’s and don’ts of soliciting and using supplier ideas:

Do’s:

• Do solicit supplier ideas. It is a growing expectation of professional procurement.
• Do give yourself the flexibility to select alternate proposals.
• Do stick to the rules that you set forth in your request for proposal (RFP).

Don’ts:

• Don’t limit yourself to one way of doing things. Better ways may exist that you, your engineering team, your internal customers, or your company haven’t discovered yet.
• Don’t share one supplier’s idea with another supplier.

There. An even more concise set of guidelines.