Overview

A company’s suppliers can play a critical role in enabling major performance breakthrough. Successful companies have learned the value of establishing partnerships. Partners go the extra mile for each other; they’re truthful about deadlines, promises, and pricing; and they’re easy to do business with. This relationship — bound by a common interest — creates loyalty and financial success. You’ll learn how to cultivate successful partner relationships in our Supplier Development program.

SatiStar can help implement a comprehensive Supplier Development Program that ensures that your suppliers join you in your performance improvement effort. We help make this a win-win proposition for your suppliers.

Scope And Deliverables

Are you continually asking your suppliers to reduce costs? Are you, as a supplier, continually being asked by your clients to reduce costs?

Faced with global competition, manufacturers are tasked daily with reducing production costs, improving quality, and implementing lean techniques. It has become critical to select and develop supply chain members that share the same commitment to developing a lean enterprise.

Manufacturers need a lean program to help reduce costs, and SatiStar can help. Our Supplier Development/Management program provides you with a critical understanding of lean supply chain operations and dynamics, including partnership purchasing and supply, distribution and supplier development.

Strategic sourcing is a systematic procurement process that continuously improves and re-evaluates the purchasing activities of a company. It is one component of supply chain management.

While most organizations implement strategic sourcing initiatives for the purposes of saving money, other reasons for implementing strategic sourcing include improving supplier performance and minimizing risk.

The steps in a strategic sourcing process are:

• Assessment of a company’s current spend (what is bought where?)
• Assessment of the supply market (who offers what)?
• Development of a sourcing strategy (where to buy what, while minimizing risk and costs)
• Identification of suitable suppliers
• Negotiation with suppliers (products, prices)
• Implementation of new supply structure
• Track results and restart assessment (continuous cycle)

What We Will Do

SatiStar’s consultants have extensive experience in building world-class Supplier Development Programs for major firms. Not only will we help you at the Strategic Sourcing level, but also at the detailed tactical level, where we roll up our sleeves and actually work in your Purchasing area to implement new systems. Our services include:

• Supplier selection – We can assist your purchasing department with supplier identification and selection.
• Supplier bidding/negotiation – We can assist your buyers to secure the lowest purchase price to meet target costing objectives.
• Supplier evaluations – We can evaluate prospective suppliers via your criteria
• Supplier quality – We can verify supplier quality data, develop and provide an analysis for you
• Supplier cost reviews – We can collect cost data from all suppliers being considered. We would then verify all cost data provided by the suppler through on-site visits. A complete cost analysis will be provided so that you can verify target cost capability.
• Supplier capacity – We can ascertain all competing suppliers ability to perform engineering development, prototype capability, testing/validation capacity and tool building capability.
• Technical reviews – We can coordinate and facilitate technical reviews. There are two types of tech reviews: technical and commercial. Items analyzed in technical reviews relate mostly to engineering issues and the supplier’s capability to meet performance and technical specifications and requirements. These reviews are necessary when you are looking for design input from its supplier candidates. (Generally if the design is not to change, technical reviews are not necessary.) Engineering personnel must be a part of this type of review. In essence suppliers will come prepared to thoroughly discuss how they will meet the functional and technical requirements previously provided by your engineering organization. Specifically items addressed in technical reviews are:
  • Supplier program team; RASIC chart; supplier resources that will be committed to execute the program; organization chart
  • Supplier engineering design concepts that match your engineering requirements
  • Supplier cost reduction ideas that you can utilize
  • Project timing
  • Product demonstrations (mock-ups) new technology items
  • Engineering Test Capabilities
  • Engineering Design Tools

  Specifically items addressed in commercial reviews are:

  • Quality metrics
  • Manufacturing floor/plant layout
  • Equipment to be utilized
  • Manufacturing facility material flow plan
  • Purchasing practices currently utilized to insure quality delivery from Tier 2 and Tier 3 supply chain.

  We would assess all supplier information and will provide to you with a risk analysis for each supplier.

• Sequence delivery – We can assess supplier’s ability to deliver product/modules using broadcast code (time from broadcast to delivery). Using your criteria, an analysis of suppliers capability to provide this type of delivery will be developed.
• Launch support – We can analyze launch history; compare ramp up schedule vs actual; manning, training, quality in place;
• logistics and distribution plan.
• Run at rate – We can perform certification of machine capability to produce quantity and quality of product. This activity is usually performed approximately 90 days before scheduled start of production.
• On-going cost control – We can assess a supplier’s capability to undergo continuous cost improvements beyond the first year of production including the supplier’s internal Cost Improvement Program; value engineering, cost reduction expertise, etc

What We Need You To Do

• Commit to the Supplier Development (SD) project.
• Provide us with access to all relevant Supplier files and databases.
• Ensure availability of required resources.
• Provide a suitable working area for the team’s activities.
• Authorize internal personnel to provide the SD team with needed information.
• Ensure timely review and approval of the SD team’s recommendations.
• Ensure that suppliers are notified of our mandate.
• Provide sufficient resources (including IT) to implement the team’s approved recommendations.
• Ensure timely delivery of desired results.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

SatiStar's Experience Makes The Difference!