Seven key steps for plywood and MDF supplier sourcing are indispensable
I hope you can learn about the seven key steps in sourcing plywood and MDF suppliers from this article. The plywood and MDF supplier sourcing we are talking about here means that organizations and institutions have already made strategic deployment, which determines the necessity of new plywood and MDF suppliers.
Each step is summarized in one sentence or one word, as follows: long list of plywood and MDF suppliers
（Supplier Long List）
For the products required by the organization, we need to collect potential plywood and MDF suppliers through various channels. In the first stage, it is not necessary to spend too much time to understand the details of plywood and MDF suppliers, but to enrich the list of plywood and MDF suppliers as much as possible.
The main channels are
01
Industry Association:
Here, it refers to non-profit organizations with a certain degree of professionalism and credibility. Information about potential plywood and MDF suppliers can be quickly obtained through their member list or plywood and MDF supplier list.
02
exhibition:
Purchasing personnel can participate in the exhibition regularly or purposefully to collect information about plywood and MDF suppliers.
03
Professional portals:
For the products you need, you can go to relevant websites to search for the information you need.
04
Peer (Purchasing Federation):
We can also quickly collect the information of required product suppliers through peers or purchasing federations. The information obtained in this way may be more diversified, for example, our purchasing peers can share the supplier’s delivery performance, quality performance, etc.
04
Recommended resources (plywood and MDF suppliers):
We can also quickly collect the information of required product suppliers through peers or purchasing federations. The information obtained in this way may be more diversified, for example, our purchasing peers can share the supplier’s delivery performance, quality performance, etc.
request for information
（RFI: Request for Information)
RFI is mainly used to collect information to help determine the next steps to be taken, formulate strategies, prepare RFQ, and determine strategic options, cost reduction alternatives and cost reduction opportunities through the analysis of plywood and MDF suppliers’ response to RFI. RFI is also used to identify potential resources. Generally, when sending RFI to target plywood and MDF suppliers, it mainly includes two parts:
Part I: RFI Cover Letter
First of all, it mainly introduces the company’s main business, sales and number of employees. It is better to attach the company’s website. In this way, plywood and MDF suppliers will quickly understand the general information of the RFI sender after receiving the RFI.
Secondly, briefly introduce the background of this project? Main target products and project objectives? In RFI, it can be proposed that plywood and MDF suppliers should feed back the company’s latest introduction and list of main products. Finally, the deadline of this RFI should be clearly marked, and plywood and MDF suppliers should give feedback within the effective time.
Part II: Supplier Questionnaire
Here, the purchaser can design the information he wants from plywood and MDF suppliers. Examples of information to be included are as follows:
Company profile: including contacts, main products, sales in the first three years, number of employees, and main customers
Quality: quality system, quality policy
Safety and environment: Is there certification?
Production: capacity, equipment
inquiry sheet
（RFQ）
After receiving the feedback from RFI, we can select target plywood and MDF suppliers for inquiry based on the feedback from plywood and MDF suppliers and in combination with the company’s procurement target. The format of the RFQ sheet and the required information can be designed by the purchaser.
It should be noted that the technical requirements and specifications of the inquiry products must be clear. If it is a standard product, you need to confirm the product brand and model. The price provided by plywood and MDF suppliers is not accurate or needs to be changed subsequently, which will delay the time of both parties.
Finally, when sending RFQ to plywood and MDF suppliers, it is necessary to clearly mark that plywood and MDF suppliers need to feed back prices in the format required by the procurement. The advantage of this is that in the subsequent comparison, the unified format is more conducive to price comparison. Of course, the time node should be clear to avoid long delays from different plywood and MDF suppliers.
Price comparison between plywood and MDF suppliers
(Comparison)
After receiving the price feedback from plywood and MDF suppliers, the procurement needs to compare the prices received.
In this article, I want to emphasize that price comparison is not a single purchase price comparison, but a TCO comparison. The concept of total cost of ownership has a long history, and it is more used in the production of enterprises. The details and advantages and disadvantages will not be repeated in this paper.
The application in purchase can be summarized as follows:
Unit Price+Logisc Cost(Unit price*coefficient)+Quality Cost(Unit Price*Reject Rate)=TCO
Unit price+logistics cost (unit price multiplied by a certain coefficient)+quality cost (unit price multiplied by rejection rate)=total cost of ownership
This is a simplified formula, which gives you a direction here. In practical application, more considerations can be added to procurement according to the situation.
In addition to price comparison, the procurement needs to take into account the company’s strategy, plywood and MDF suppliers, and service level to prepare for the next step.
Pre audit
（Pre-audit）
After we have made a preliminary judgment on the price, service and quality of plywood and MDF suppliers in the previous steps, we can select the most potential plywood and MDF suppliers for preliminary review.
Generally, the pre review is carried out by the procurement department. It mainly involves the following aspects:
Equipment: Plywood and MDF suppliers need to provide equipment lists to specify the specifications of products that can be produced (such as: castings: maximum diameter? Precision?)
Capacity: production of plywood and MDF suppliers (e.g., how many shifts? Maximum capacity? Current capacity share?)
Customers: the proportion of the largest customers, output value (e.g., the proportion of sales of the top three customers?)
Capital: major shareholder, company nature (e.g. private or foreign enterprise?)
Personnel: number of employees (technical talents, office staff, quality related personnel)
Prequalification of plywood and MDF suppliers is very important for procurement. During the visit, we can intuitively understand the relatively real situation of plywood and MDF suppliers through personnel, site, environment and transportation. The professional procurement personnel should complete the prequalification report and give a score within 1-2 weeks after the prequalification. The more intuitive way is to distinguish plywood and MDF suppliers by color, as follows: audit
（Audit）
For plywood and MDF suppliers that have passed the prequalification, the procurement department shall share the formal prequalification report with the supplier quality engineer (SQE) of plywood and MDF. Plywood and MDF supplier quality engineers will conduct formal review according to the pre review report and the corresponding purchased products. Different from the focus of procurement audit, the quality engineer will pay more attention to the evaluation of plywood and MDF supplier quality system, quality level, traceability, sustainable sourcing , etc. As SQE audit is more for quality related certification, this article will not discuss it much, and interested partners can query it on the Internet.
sample
After the plywood and MDF suppliers pass the audit, they can place sample orders. Pay attention to the following aspects for sample orders:
Technical standards: technical standards need to be confirmed again
The purchase needs to clarify the inspection plan and inspection method with the organization. This is conducive to the subsequent product certification. If it is a standard product, the technical requirements and specifications of the required product should be clarified with the engineer.
Of course, the sourcing of plywood and MDF suppliers will not be completed after the samples are passed. The subsequent trial production, small volume production and mass production also require a lot of effort and effort from the procurement personnel. Due to the limited space, and what this paper hopes to highlight is the early key work of plywood and MDF supplier sourcing , it is only necessary to carry out the following content.
