How to manage suppliers

How to manage suppliers

Many companies want to strengthen the supervision and control of upstream suppliers, and usually arrange one or two SQE quality control personnel to go to the supplier to station in the factory. And the management of suppliers is more than quality? !

First of all, there are too many factors affecting product quality, such as raw material problems, process problems, engineering problems, personnel problems, equipment problems, supplier internal management problems, etc.; if you just stay at the quality and technical level, there will always be endless solutions. The problem.

In addition, in addition to managing quality, there are also on time delivery issues; there are price and cost issues; and other business cooperation issues. These issues are more macroscopic and focus more on the relationship with the supplier’s senior level. One or two SQE engineers can’t reach that level of management.

When many SQE engineers are stationed in the factory, they take a pre-prepared audit check list and outline the fundamentals of the factory, and list the problems they find. As for the factory, it may only take one or two days. , And leave after completing the check list, leaving a bunch of questions to the supplier to complete. As for how to complete it, it is up to the supplier to find the answer and solve it by himself.

As a result, the quality problems continue to have problems; the lack of materials continue to be lack of materials; the cost is unclear or unclear… In the final analysis, the management of the supplier in the factory is to solve it-who will take care of it? What to care about? How to manage the problem.

So how do we change to achieve refined management?

The first is the candidate in the factory

What kind of professional qualifications are qualified to be in the factory? What type is suitable for planting? Who will be chosen to lead the management in the factory? How can we build an efficient management team in the factory?

From the manufacturing level, there are several different levels of suppliers of raw materials, module components and complete machine assembly, as well as sub-suppliers of these suppliers.

Why stay in the factory? In fact, the fundamental reason for staying in the factory is that you can’t believe the supplier’s commitment and ability or the supplier’s limited ability and level. The fundamental purpose is to let professional people watch the supplier’s various work steps, links and processes on the spot, and provide the most direct Provide counseling and consultation to help suppliers solve problems in the fastest time.

Since “quality is produced rather than inspected”, the process is more important than the result. When the process is done right, the result is naturally not bad.

We know that the production of a product requires the cooperation of multiple departments, including the planning department, material department, R&D and engineering department, purchasing department, production management, quality department, after-sales service, social responsibility and other department members to work together to ensure the perfection of a product Presented and listed on schedule.

Next is the question of what to care about

“Human, machine, material, method, and environment” are the most basic management elements. Fishbone diagram method is used to analyze specific problems and find the causal relationship. for example:

Personnel: Including the supplier’s direct employee DL and indirect employee IDL, managing their on-time and overtime control, as well as coordinating the cooperation between the factory staff and the supplier.

Machines: Including the main production machines and testing equipment, as well as auxiliary production molds, fixtures and accessories and other materials; including the main production materials of BOM, auxiliary production materials, consumables, and inventory control and scrapping of semi-finished products and finished products Product control, etc.

Methods: Including technical drawings, operating instructions, process operation documents, inspection standards and instructions, demand planning, material planning, capacity planning, production and supply planning, recruitment and training plans, cooperation agreements, confidentiality agreements, etc.

Environment: Including the facility configuration, security measures, line layout and IT resource construction of the production environment.

Because the situation of the whole machine assembly and the material and device-level manufacturers is not the same, the responsibilities of the factory management are focused and different.

The material-device-level GSM integrates management roles such as planning, materials, procurement, and production operations. It is a super housekeeper who has to take care of everything except technical issues. The division of labor in the factory on the whole machine side is more detailed and clear, and each professional field The personnel perform their duties and achieve the project delivery goals under the leadership of the production operations manager OPM.

The last thing is to solve the problem of how to manage

In fact, it is a matter of how to manage the problem.

What we have to do is to develop as many data management tools and templates as possible. There are basic data logic and data models in these templates. As long as the supplier inputs according to the template provided by Apple, the data collection, data analysis, and result presentation can basically be completed.

The three key elements: talent, strategy and execution

The most commonly used management method is the goal-oriented difference inspection method.

The so-called goal orientation is to use goals to drive business operations, use data to build models, and drive performance. Follow the WeChat official account to learn knowledge column every day to receive free procurement materials and year-end summaries. According to specific and quantifiable goals, a series of data reports and templates are designed to be used by suppliers.

The plant-based team needs to review data performance every day, find problems through data and data analysis, and solve them on site or within a specified time, such as two weeks, or specify that the problem must be closed in a closed loop within a time when the risk is acceptable .

Another common management method used by the plant-based team is Audit-on-site audit method, on-site inspection and verification of the authenticity and accuracy of supplier data statements, especially financial data and social responsibility data, if fraud or deliberate fraud is found, The supplier is heavily punished.