I hear buyers talk about their “good suppliers” and their “bad suppliers”, yet they are often unable to pinpoint what makes them “good” or “bad”.
- Maybe one factory has better “systems”. But few buyers actually take the time to look into those “systems”.
- Maybe they have more progressive management. They tried approaches that are unusual in their industry.
- Maybe they simply have more recent equipment, which is easier to control and maintain.
That’s a lot of “maybes”.
At CMC we have developed a self-assessment tool that will help you pinpoint in what areas their performance is good, average, and below average.
Rate a factory by clicking here
You will get a score by email, along with links to explanatory articles.
If you purchase from a factory and you have visited it 2 or 3 times, you should be able to make educated guesses about about the questions.
Why not simply conduct a factory audit? Because an audit typically looks at only one area of performance. However, this assessment tool looks at the three main performance areas of any business:
- Quality
- Cost
- On-time delivery
It doesn’t matter if the factory collects no data. If they have no preventive maintenance system, for example, you know right there that there is a problem. Their equipment will run until it is down. By that time, there might be an impact on product quality. And it probably delays the shipment.
I hope it’s helpful!
