Supplier Scorecards – Case Study

Background and Problem

A division of a major orthopedics products manufacturer had multiple sites and suppliers scattered worldwide. Several supplier performance metrics were in place, however, these were site specific, and not standardized. This made it very difficult to create meaningful and standard scorecards, leading to complications in supplier performance management. The impact to the business was felt through lack of supplier responsiveness in closing out SCARs and action items.

Solution

First a consensus was developed around the metrics that would work across multiple sites and be of benefit in managing suppliers. This was followed by the creation of a dash board that key managers and leaders at every site could use. Once this was accomplished, the whole process of creating scorecards was automated – saving over 100 man hours / month, and eliminating human error. The project involved automating the assembly and integration of scorecard data to enable Supplier Quality Engineers focus on the high risk suppliers.

Additionally, supplier scorecards helped introduce a healthy level of competition between suppliers – resulting in a win win for all.