Basic criteria for the development and selection of wood-based panel suppliers, ten principles and eight capability evaluation
The selection of suitable wood-based panel suppliers is an important link in the quality management of wood-based panel suppliers.
- Basic criteria for the development of wood-based panel suppliers
The basic principle for the development of wood-based panel suppliers is the “Q, C, D, S” principle, that is, the principle of paying equal attention to quality, cost, delivery and service. Of these four factors, the quality factor is the most important. Firstly, it is necessary to confirm whether the wood-based panel supplier has established a stable and effective quality assurance system, and then confirm whether the wood-based panel supplier has the equipment and process capacity to produce the specific products required. The second is cost and price. We should use the value engineering method to analyze the cost of the products involved, and achieve cost savings through win-win price negotiations. In terms of delivery, it is necessary to determine whether the wood-based panel supplier has sufficient production capacity, human resources and the potential to expand production capacity. Last but not least, the pre-sale and after-sales service records of wood-based panel suppliers.
- Ten principles for selection of wood-based panel suppliers
1) General principles – comprehensive, specific and objective principles:
Establish and use a comprehensive comprehensive evaluation index system for wood-based panel suppliers to make comprehensive, specific
Objective evaluation. The performance of wood-based panel suppliers, equipment management, human resource development, quality control, cost control, technology development, user satisfaction, delivery agreement and other aspects that may affect the supply chain cooperation relationship are comprehensively considered.
2) Principle of systematic comprehensiveness:
Establishment and use of a comprehensive and systematic evaluation system.
3) Principle of simplicity and scientificity:
The evaluation and selection procedures of wood-based panel suppliers and the selection process are transparent, institutionalized and scientific.
4) Principle of stable comparability:
The evaluation system should operate stably, unify standards and reduce subjective factors.
5) Principle of flexibility and operability:
The evaluation of wood-based panel suppliers in different industries, enterprises, product needs and different environments should be different
Flexibility and operability.
6) The principle of door-to-door:
The size and level of wood-based panel suppliers are comparable to that of the purchasers. It embodies a kind of equal management thought, which is not in contradiction with the cooperation theory of “whoever is close to the red”. In the supply market of non-monopoly sources of goods, due to the different management level of wood-based panel suppliers and the depth of supply chain management implementation, priority should be given to wood-based panel suppliers with comparable scale and level.
However, it is not necessarily that the industry leader must be the preferred wood-based panel supplier. If the scale difference between the two sides is too large, the purchase proportion
If the proportion of the total output value of wood-based panel suppliers is too small, the purchasers tend to be unsatisfactory in terms of production scheduling, after-sales service, flexibility and negotiation strength.
7) The principle of half proportion:
From the perspective of risk assessment of wood-based panel suppliers, the purchase quantity shall not exceed 50% of the production capacity of wood-based panel suppliers, and the wood-based panel suppliers with full supply are opposed. If only one wood-based panel supplier is responsible for 100% supply and 100% cost sharing, the purchaser will have greater risk, because once the wood-based panel supplier has problems, according to the development of the “butterfly effect”, it will inevitably affect the normal operation of the entire supply chain. Moreover, when the purchaser is dependent on certain supply materials or products, he should also consider geographical risks.
(The meaning of “butterfly effect”: In the tropical rainforest of the Amazon River basin in South America, a butterfly carelessly flapped its wings a few times, which may cause a disastrous storm in Texas, the United States, two weeks later. The reason is that the movement of the butterfly’s wings causes changes in the air system around it, and causes the generation of weak air flow. “Butterfly effect” refers to that in a power system, Small changes in initial conditions can cause long-term and huge chain reactions in the whole system. This is a chaotic phenomenon. This effect shows that the results of the development of things are highly sensitive to the initial conditions, and the minimum deviation of the initial conditions will cause great differences in the results.)
8) Control principle of supply source quantity:
In principle, the number of wood-based panel suppliers actually supplied should not be too many, and the number of wood-based panel suppliers of similar materials should be about 2-3,
There are primary and secondary wood-based panel suppliers. This can reduce the management cost and improve the management effect, and ensure the stability of supply.
9) Strategic principles of supply chain:
Develop strategic supply chain cooperation with important wood-based panel suppliers. The purchaser establishes trust, cooperation and cooperation with wood-based panel suppliers
The long-term cooperation relationship of the supply chain with open communication must first analyze the market competition environment. Confirm whether it is necessary to establish a supply chain partnership by analyzing the current product demand, product types and characteristics. For the open and fully competitive market of wood-based panel suppliers, we can adopt the principle of price comparison, quantity control and selection.
However, in the limited competitive market and the exclusive supply market where there are only a few wood-based panel suppliers to choose from, the purchaser needs to adopt the principle of strategic cooperation to obtain better quality, closer partnership, better scheduling, lower cost and more support.
For wood-based panel suppliers who implement strategic long-term partnership, they can sign a “package agreement/contract”. After establishing the supply chain partnership, it is also necessary to confirm whether the supply chain partnership will change accordingly according to the change of demand. Once a problem is found with a personal board supplier, the supply chain strategy should be adjusted in time.
Supply chain strategic management is also reflected in another aspect: careful analysis and handling of the relationship between short-term and long-term objectives, short-term and long-term interests. From the perspective of long-term goals and interests, buyers may choose some seemingly harsh and expensive wood-based panel suppliers, but in fact, this is to give up short-term interests and take the initiative to choose a supply chain composed of excellent elements.
10) Learning update principle:
The indicators of evaluation, the objects of benchmarking and the tools and techniques of evaluation need to be constantly updated.
Eight Capability Assessments for Selecting Wood-based Panel Suppliers
- Management ability
How about understanding their managers? Is the work effective? Are you interested in the cooperation and contract with you?
1) Pay attention to the conversation with the management of the wood-based panel supplier about the cooperation intention, the understanding of the contract that can be cooperated, and the strong interest in the description and conclusion of the terms.
2) This can be demonstrated by their intentional proposal of appropriate communication methods to solve possible problems.
3) How about the organizational structure of the company? Is there a quality management entity? To whom is the quality manager responsible and to whom is he reporting?
4) Pay attention to the working environment of the manager’s office. If the documents are piled high on the desk and chair, and if the office is always noisy and chaotic, you can be sure that your contract will suffer the same fate.
5) What is the manager’s experience? The most effective way of initial contact is to change the information unexpectedly from time to time to observe their reaction (whether they face the problem directly and solve the problem well) when investigating them.
6) What is the attitude of the management? Understand their indicators of defective products and the handling of defective products in cooperation with other manufacturers. Do they believe that making mistakes is inevitable? Or do they prove that they hold the idea of “defect prevention” in mind? Whether they agree with the zero-defect work philosophy – people will work with the level of grace they think is important (fully understand all the task requirements of the work, and never compromise with the requirements that do not meet).
7) Does the manager have a plan for continuous improvement (especially for small problems), development plan and vision for the current product quality improvement? What is their attitude? Do you think it is unnecessary?
8) One of the most important things is that for smaller companies, we must find the boss or boss who has the final say in the investigation. If there is no boss present, other managers may “facilitate or break” the signed contracts and commitments.
- Understanding ability of contract
Both parties must establish an appropriate communication channel.
1) It can ensure that both parties to the contract can have a proper understanding of the contract, and only sit down at the same time to study it word by word. Every specification requirement, every shipping requirement and every document requirement should be studied. Only in this way can we reach a real consensus between the two sides.
2) All relevant matters should be expressed in written form, because the personnel of both parties will change and flow.
3) The wood-based panel supplier must realize that if the customer requests to modify some original contract terms, it must have the corresponding written letter to modify the contract. It shall not be modified without authorization or without correspondence.
- Equipment capacity
Know what equipment the other party will use when producing your hardware? Is the machine or process procedure available? Will they be short at the same time?
1) Before the investigation, it is necessary to know what processes are used for the cooperation products? What production equipment is needed?
2) Check whether their equipment is complete, whether the specifications and models meet the requirements, and whether the equipment is in good condition.
3) Whether the inspected equipment is in situ or elsewhere, or whether it is processed by subcontractors of relevant processes.
4) Whether the process procedures are complete and processed according to the process procedures.
5) Check whether their inspection equipment and measuring instruments are complete, and how to control the accuracy?
Assessors and wood-based panel suppliers need to reach a mutual understanding of how to carry out this work, and those inspection equipment must be ready for standby before they can express confidence.
- Process capability
1) The assessment personnel must have direct knowledge of the process planning ability.
2) It can be compared and investigated according to the similar process that has been developed and verified.
3) Whether documented management has been established for process requirements, especially for important, critical and special processes, and whether the operating staff are clear about their requirements.
4) Whether to take each event and each stage seriously, including some small events, should have the secret to solve many small problems. Although these small problems seem insignificant individually, they often determine the accuracy of the plan.
Moreover, before the process is put into practice in the workshop, the original record documents have been carefully checked and verified to be correct.
5) Whether the process loss management has been established to collect and analyze, prevent defects, rework and repair, reduce external failure costs, and is committed to optimizing and controlling the overall cost of the process through various methods such as establishing value engineering, so as to dynamically adjust the process in a timely manner.
6) Whether a continuous process capability review procedure management has been established for monitoring, control and improvement. And management and control that cannot be changed without similar certification.
- Product measurement and control capability
A company that does not measure its compliance or performance until the product is offline is not a well-managed company – Crosby
The price of mistakes is money. Rework and scrap will ultimately be borne by the customer, so the only answer is to prevent “defects”. Even if you can’t prevent the first occurrence of a defect sometimes, you can still prevent it from happening again—— Philip Crosby
Understand the degree of non-conformity of wood-based panel suppliers’ products? Do they clearly know what the problem is? Can they predict the next batch of products?
1) Check whether there are sound records for the inspection and test of each process every day, and classify the problems according to the records organized by the quality department. Each workshop and foreman know what problems have occurred in the product quality.
2) Every time the defect occurs, it can eliminate the problem, analyze, study and correct the error in time.
3) Whether their general manager and quality management principal have mastered the comprehensive measurement of the quality of departments, workshops and types of work (whether there is a comprehensive measurement report, and whether the main person in charge is clear), and whether they have made decisions and dealt with the situation reflected in the report. To reflect whether the management has the ability to comprehensively measure against each department.
- Technical ability of employees
1) The best way to determine whether the wood-based panel supplier has qualified technical workers is to ask them to designate some representatives (or operators to inspect the equipment). Talk to these workers and check their work. Observe how they operate their tools and how they treat the work environment.
2) Know where their workers come from, and you will have an understanding of the stability of their workers.
3) According to the equipment, work shift and inquiry, further understand whether the skilled workers meet the production needs.
- Ability to take corrective action
Ask them what to do when they find something wrong? How can they make such events happen again? Do they really care about such events?
Check their inspection records and ask them what problems (or possible problems) have occurred in the past, and how to correct, handle and prevent such problems from happening again. Viewing their records and responses should reflect their ability to correct actions.
- Ability to record past performance
Ask how they are doing? What are the reasons for the performance that does not meet the standards? Then go back and check whether corrective measures have been taken where the problems have been caused.
Finally, after evaluating some alternative wood-based panel suppliers according to the above steps, you will quickly form an evaluation of their capabilities in your mind. If there is no hope, reject it. If you still feel that there is a chance, even if there are some weaknesses, talk openly.
1) Sit down with the general manager and tell him formally and concretely about the dangerous situation you have seen. Don’t put forward specific improvement measures, but solemnly state that if these problems are not corrected, the contract will not be successfully implemented.
2) If you find that he is willing to accept these suggestions, you should insist on writing these problems in the document, specifying the date of correction, and specifying the responsibilities, then these problems will be corrected.
3) Finally, the person in charge of price will evaluate the financial situation of the other party to end the evaluation.
In this evaluation process, nothing is more important than the judgment of an experienced, mature and prudent person, so don’t be too limited to the contents of the procedure documents and questionnaires, which will only be evaluated from the perspective of the procedure documents rather than the real business perspective. Carefully study the facts, make correct judgments, and then track and check the actions promised.
