Discussion board - evaluating suppliers and vendors

Evaluating Suppliers and Vendors al Affiliation In my own opinion, the most important criteria according to the ones d are coming up with the performance indicators, deciding on who should be in charge, doing an evaluation, maintaining good relationships and finally, offloading unnecessary and underproductive suppliers and vendors (Brown, 2010).
In order of priority, it is important to carry out an evaluation to decide on who the suppliers and the vendors should be even before one starts to engage with them. A prior knowledge of the vendors and suppliers will help a business owner or manager know the type of people who are coming on board as partners. This evaluation should include an in-depth research on the activities that the vendors and suppliers engage in. The evaluation should also focus on the value added that the various suppliers, and the vendors are likely to bring to the company. Secondly, it is important to decide on the performance indicators. It is important to define the roles and the characteristics as well as the behavior that the vendors and suppliers should show or exhibit in the course of the business transactions. This will create a clear picture of the manager’s expectations to the vendors and suppliers. The performance criteria and the measurement of performance are subject to the performance indicators, and all vendors and suppliers need to be aware of it. It is after setting the performance indicators that the manager should come up with the duties of individuals in the company in relation to the suppliers and the vendors. When dealing with the suppliers, it is necessary that the teams or departments that deal with the suppliers directly are able to give their honest opinions about the suppliers and vendors. It is useful that they help with the ratings when it comes to the way the suppliers and the vendors are engaging in business. This will give the manager the first hand information about the suppliers and the vendors. Then it is necessary to create a good rapport with the vendors and the suppliers. It is at this point that one should treat the suppliers and the vendors as part of the larger management team. It is necessary that proper communication and communication channels are put in place by the manager to allow for free flow of information (Vendor Management, 2005). The manager needs to address the issues affecting the vendors and suppliers in an open and honest manner at all the times to maintain the good relationship. Finally, it is important to get rid of underproductive vendors and suppliers to avoid wastage for the company. This will give room for contracting new and productive vendors and suppliers.
Some of the important criteria left out in the article include the previous engagements. This is important because from previous engagements, a manager becomes aware of the capabilities of a vendor or supplier, and this can help in deciding whether to work or not work with a vendor or supplier. The other important criterion left out of the article is the demand for proof of compliance. It is important to have proof that the supplier or the vendor is genuine and is not likely to land the company on the wrong side of the law. It is important to work with law-abiding companies to avoid unplanned legal tussles.
The scale is a good way of scoring the criterion. An analytic rating scale is the best since it has expectations that are explicit to the performance of the individual involved. The manager has the expectations on the performance of the vendors and suppliers and as such, this scale would help in their measurements (Roth, 2008). On a project management context, it is important to measure the criteria against the objectives that come into realization as the project continues from time to time. The other way of measuring the criteria in project management is through the weighted-scoring method that allows for a multi-criterion analysis in management. The identification of non-monetary factors occur, then the weights are allocated to them depending on how important they are and the scores indicate performance in relation to attributes thus the manager is in a position to act on the outcome (Dale and Dale, 2004).
References
Brown, C. M. (2010, December 30). 7 Tips for Rating and Evaluating Your Suppliers and Vendors BY Carolyn M. Brown. Inc. com. Retrieved March 13, 2014, from http://www. inc. com/guides/2010/12/7-tips-to-rate-and-evaluate-your-suppliers-and-vendors. html
Dale, R., & Dale, R. (2004). Evaluating development programmes and projects (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Sage.
Roth, A. V. (2008). Handbook of metrics for research in operations management: Multi-item measurement scales and objective items. London: SAGE.
Vendor Management Tips: Building Relationships. (2005, February 22). Computerworld.
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