Benefits of Supplier Audits
All audits come with benefits, after all, no one would conduct them and take the time to get certified on it if it wasn’t like that. However, when you are not too familiar with this world—or not familiar at all—you want to make sure you are going for the right option depending on your needs. This is normal and the right thing to do.
Therefore, if you are trying to determine if you should invest in a Supplier Audit, you will find all the information here useful. To begin with, most companies think about the disadvantages of something before even thinking about the good parts. Usually, this is what makes people have a hard time trying to decide if it is a good idea or not, if it is worth investing in or, in this case, if they should conduct it or not.
As mentioned before, it is the right decision to take your time to research and determine if the decisions you are making are taking you in the right direction. But when it comes to audits, especially Supplier Audits, you need to be familiar with the benefits more than anything else. And this is something most people tend to miss, which is why we want to discuss it only—at least for now.
So, let’s move onto the main question or interrogative of all this: what is the main benefit of the Supplier Audit? When you research basic information about it, you will find the answer to this question: determine if the supplier can meet the requirements and needs of the customer. This helps companies and people overall to make the decision of buying a product or hiring a service or not.
After all, all this involves investment and you need to make sure you are choosing the right supplier to prevent your company from being affected in the future.
Therefore, the main thing this auditing process will determine and benefits you is if the relationship between you—the customers—and the supplier is an optimum one. How can the audit determine this? By analyzing and studying the quality and delivery management systems of the supplier.
One of the main things you need to worry about when hiring a supplier for the first time and even about the ones that have been with you for years is the quality of the products and services. If they are improving and providing even services and products than before without a big change in the financial or cost aspect, it shouldn’t be necessary to replace them.
However, if the opposite is taking place and you are noticing the poor performance, quality and delivery, you need to evaluate it and determine if it is better to part ways or find another supplier that can meet what you are looking for. Although there is no doubt, you will need to find another one.
What are the best benefits of Supplier Audits?
Moving onto the next ones we are sure will interest you, you will find Supplier Audits to be the key when it comes to a yearly or periodical supplier evaluation. They can help you to determine or identify most of the information during an evaluation—which is necessary as well.
Now, the benefits are many and we are sure you will find yourself overwhelmed if we just start naming them without an explanation or specific reason why they are benefits for you in the first place.
So, let’s go one by one:
Effective document management: organizing and having all the documentation in one place is essential for any company, especially during a customer-supplier relationship. The records of all the transactions and operations need to be archived or saved in a safe place where you can access them during the auditing process, or during any other activity that requires their review.
Identify the risks: there is always a percentage of risks when you contract a new supplier or just expand your supply chain. And this applies to the suppliers you have had for a few years. Through the Supplier Audit, you can determine in which areas you are prone to go through issues and problems that will cause harm to your operations and processes directly.
You need to evaluate all the risks involved in the relationship, and if you consider there are way too many or too high to handle or deal with, you can decide to stop and break the contract with the supplier. To identify these risks, you have to go through all the management systems of the supplier, not only the quality and delivery one but rather every single one. This is the only way to identify all the gaps and find the required information.
How does the supplier contribute to the cost and quality elements: does the supplier provide high-quality products or parts at an affordable price? This is a question that looks way too common for some people, but it is quite necessary due to the importance of the budget and expenses you manage in your company.
The auditing process will help you to determine if the supplier is contributing to saving money while also providing high-quality parts or services. If it is not, you need to make the decision of finding a new one, evaluating the pros and cons a bit deeper, or think about other alternatives to the supplier.
You will improve the communication between the supplier and customer: having strong communication between both parties is crucial. A Supply Audit tends to be misunderstood as a way to break the trust the customer has on the supplier but any professional supplier will allow you to conduct it. After all, it is necessary to continue with a long-term relationship and this will allow you and them to discuss what needs to improve or not.
All these benefits—and we are still missing some—is what makes you want to conduct them without second thoughts. And we assure you it is the same for other clients and customers that are thinking about it or just doing it.