I hope that you have enjoyed the article \u201c\u2018Impossible\u2019 Supplier Management Metrics?\u201c<\/p>\n
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One of the core themes in this article is to work with stakeholders, such as end users, to determine supplier performance when you lack the automation to access metrics. There are some challenges with this.<\/p>\n
In my purchasing career, I have had many instances where end users complain about the performance of certain suppliers. But, upon investigation, found that the suppliers\u2019 performance wasn\u2019t so bad.<\/p>\n
This type of discrepancy often comes down to the fact that we, in procurement, like to think in terms of metrics and other people don\u2019t have that mindset. For example, I recall one situation where an internal customer of mine suggested to me that we do not invite a certain supplier to bid on a RFP because he \u201cheard\u201d that they were having financial troubles.<\/p>\n
Me, I\u2019m thinking \u201cOK, what is their Altman Z Score? What have their losses been the past three years? What\u2019s their Current Ratio?\u201c<\/p>\n
Of course, my end user wasn\u2019t thinking those things. But our job, as procurement professionals, is not to simply take end user input like that and base decisions on it. It is to help them verify and quantify what the problems actually are.<\/p>\n
I hope that the article inspires you to do just that.<\/p>\n
And, speaking of inspiration\u2026this article plus \u201cSupplier Management: Make It Strategic\u201d from a few weeks ago and a couple more forthcoming articles are based on a phenomenal podcast I did with Sherry Gordon, author of Supplier Evaluation and Performance Excellence: A Guide to Meaningful Metrics and Successful Results.<\/em> If you want to learn more advanced concepts about supplier management, this podcast is mandatory listening. Click here to check it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I hope that you have enjoyed the article \u201c\u2018Impossible\u2019 Supplier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procurement"],"yoast_head":"\n