Supplier Quality
The nature of an organization's relationship with its suppliers has dramatically changed. Global outsourcing and co-development is on the rise as companies increase focus on their core competencies. These changes have created a need for organizations to put in place a supplier quality management system to increase visibility into supplier quality and improve supplier accountability.
Some of the best practices being employed by leading global manufacturers by leveraging MetricStream Supplier Quality Management solutions include:
Supplier Access: Deploying quality management systems with web-based access for suppliers enabling them to easily access and rapidly adopt a web-based supplier quality management system. Even suppliers with basic IT infrastructure can access the application without any additional investment in hardware or software.
Real-time Quality Analysis: Automating review and approval workflows for quality data in real-time by following a systematic process for collecting, plotting and analyzing inspection data to identify material nonconformance before lots are shipped.
Issue Tracking: Tracking supplier nonconformance issues in real-time by establishing consistent procedures for components and lots that do not conform to specifications. MetricStream supports identification, evaluation, segregation, and disposition of nonconforming material as well as issue investigation and tracking.
Streamlined Corrective Actions: Implementing a proactive approach to supplier corrective action requests (SCARs) or corrective/preventive action requests (CAPAs) across the supply-base. MetricStream enables triggering SCARs/CAPAs, performing root cause analysis, assigning follow up actions while effectively tracking and routing cases from initiation to closure.
Supplier Charge-backs: Charging cost of poor quality back to the supplier for the costs incurred by a manufacturer due to nonconforming components, materials, and late deliveries in order to to introduce business discipline and accountability into the supply chain. MetricStream supports recovering both - material costs and processing costs associated with the nonconformance. It allows users to manage the end-to-end chargeback process - aggregate all costs from an incident, route for approvals internally and to the supplier, collaboratively resolve the disputed recovery amounts, and notify back office systems for financial closure.
Supplier Scorecards: Monitoring supplier performance on scorecards to proactively identify and implement timely corrective actions improves supplier performance. MetricStream scorecards measure key performance indicators (KPI) in real-time and track improvements over time supporting sound decision-making based on data.
Supplier Audits: Conducting supplier audits to ensure that suppliers meet the established product and process quality requirements and the audit process drives continuous improvement. MetricStream provides capabilities to plan, schedule and conduct audits, allows audits finding to be analyzed and enables the initiation of follow-up activities such as corrective action requests and re-audits.
